After winning the Karhal seat in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday, 22 March, handed over his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from his membership of the House.
There was speculation that Yadav would let go of Karhal and remain an MP from Azamgarh.
However, the speculation had sparked criticism from his SP supporters who wanted Yadav to retain the Karhal seat and be the Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly.
Yadav had won his maiden Assembly election earlier this month, garnering 67,504 votes from the party stronghold Karhal in the Mainpuri district.
He received 1,48,196 votes, or 60.12 percent of the total votes polled, against 80,692 votes for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rival Union minister SP Singh Baghel. With 15,701 votes, BSP's Kuldip Narayan remained in the third position.
Jailed SP leader Azam Khan Resigns from Lok Sabha
Meanwhile, senior SP leader Azam Khan also handed in his resignation from the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Khan had won the parliamentary seat of Rampur by a margin of 55,141 votes against BJP’s Akash Saxena in the state elections.
The Allahabad High Court on 8 March had granted bail to Azam Khan in connection with a land grab case. However, Khan, who is presently lodged in Sitapur Jail, will continue to remain in prison as judgments in two cases against him are reserved.
The SP had finished with 111 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections, results of which were declared on 10 March. However, the state saw another saffron wave as the BJP and its allies won 273 seats out of the total 403 seats.
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