Akhilesh Yadav, President of the Samajwadi Party (SP), has officially resigned from his membership of Vidhan Sabha as he shifts his focus to central politics.
He was MLA from Karhal but has been elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat. Following this victory, he was required to vacate one of his seats, leading to his resignation from the Karhal constituency.
According to Pradeep Dubey, the Principal Secretary of the Assembly, Yadav's resignation has been received, and the acceptance process is underway.
In his role as the Leader of the Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Akhilesh Yadav's departure necessitates the appointment of a successor. It is anticipated that this position will likely be assigned to his uncle, Shivpal Singh Yadav or Mehboob Ali.
Justifying Akhilesh’s decision to leave UP for national politics, a senior Samajwadi Party leader said UP now has assembly elections in 2027. “There is not much to do in state politics for 3 years. Therefore, it is better for Akhilesh Yadav to now focus on Delhi,” he said.
Secondly, under Akhilesh Yadav's leadership, the Samajwadi Party has emerged as the third largest party in the country. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, SP won 37 seats independently and a total of 43 seats in Uttar Pradesh in alliance with the Congress party.
“After this huge win for the party, Akhilesh is now seeing space in central politics. This decision of Akhilesh will help him to take the party to the national level,” he said.
Two More SP MLAs Resign:
Two more Samajwadi Party MLAs Lalji Verma and Awdhesh Prasad have also resigned from the state assembly. They also gave their letters to the Vidhan Sabha secretariat office.
Lalji Verma won election from Ambedkar Nagar defeating Ritesh Pandey of BJP while Awdhesh Prasad won from Faizabad defeating BJP’s Laloo Singh of BJP.
Awadhesh Prasad said that he and Akhilesh ad resigned together. “I and the national president of the party have sent our resignation to the assembly speaker. Just like we used to sit together in the assembly, we will sit together in the Lok Sabha in the same way,” he said.
However, the assembly speaker has not yet accepted the resignation.
There is talk that Akhilesh may field Lalu Yadav's son-in-law Tej Pratap Singh Yadav from Karhal seat. Party had earlier fielded Tej Pratap from Kannauj but in the last minute he was replaced with Akhilesh Yadav.
However, there is talk of two more names. These include SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav's nephew Arvind Yadav and former MLA Sobran Singh Yadav.