LUCKNOW, NOVEMBER 22 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav got an ‘‘unexpected’’ gift on his 68th birthday when Justice M A Khan of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court dismissed the BSP petition challenging former Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi’s order which had recognised the split in the BSP that had taken place two years ago.

The other judge, on the two judge bench, Justice Jagdish Bhalla, reserved his order.

Two years ago, 40 BSP MLAs had joined the Samajwadi Party following merger of their breakaway faction with the ruling party. The decision of Justice Khan, comes as a reprieve for the CM’s counsel for the Speaker, Advocate General Virendra Bhatia. The AG said even if Justice Bhalla delivers a dissenting judgement, the matter would be referred to a third judge by the Chief Justice and in that case the majority judgement would have prevailed.

Justice Khan pronounced his judgement in open court even as the counsels of both parties were arguing on the amendment petition moved by BSP last month. The counsel for BSP and former Advocate General Satish Chandra Mishra said that on his request, Justice Bhalla had noted on record that the arguments were heard till 4 pm, and reserved his order on the amendment petition. Mishra said he had sent a letter to the CJ requesting him to seal the judgement.

The BSP MLAs had defected, in two batches of 37 and three, to the SP in August 2003. It was only after they gave in writing to the Governor their support for SP that Mulayam took oath as CM on August 29, 2003. The splinter group of the BSP, named Loktantrik Bahujan Dal, was granted recognition in the Vidhan Sabha by Tripathi on September 6, 2003. Two days later, LBD merged with the SP.

At present, the ruling party has 195 MLAs in the House.

The new converts to the Samajwadi ideology include Amarmani Tripathi, Dinesh Singh, Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, Rajendra Singh Rana, Yogesh Pratap Singh and Virendra Singh Bundela.