Following his election as the Karhal MLA in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has decided to resign from the Lok Sabha. Yadav handed over his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla, on Tuesday afternoon.
The SP chief represented eastern UP’s Azamgarh in the Lower House of the Parliament. The SP has four other members in the Lok Sabha, including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Akhilesh Yadav is expected to lead the party and play the role of the leader of opposition in the UP state assembly. According to some commentators, with this move, Yadav has signaled that he wishes to solidify his position as the BJP’s main challenger in Uttar Pradesh for the next election.
As the main rival of the BJP in this year’s UP election, Akhilesh Yadav’s party finished a distant second, with 111 seats in the 403-member assembly. The incumbent BJP scored 255 seats, attaining a clear majority. In the days following the release of the election results for the crucial state, Yadav stated that his party’s performance had demonstrated its potential to reduce the BJP’s seats. In 2017, the BJP had won 325 seats with its allies.
According to the Hindustan Times, Yadav has been a relentless critic of the BJP and UP CM Yogi Adityanath for a number of reasons, including the issue of jobs in the state. During the election, he accused the BJP of interfering with the electronic voting machines (EVMs). He also criticised the ruling party for its handling of the COVID pandemic.
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Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan also resigned from the Lok Sabha. He won the Rampur seat in the UP assembly election in the recent polls. Noteworthy, multiple police cases have been filed against Khan, which the party has described as political revenge.
