Guwahati: Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, resigned as a member of the Lok Sabha from the Azamgarh constituency on Tuesday, opting to keep the Karhal assembly seat he won in the recent Uttar Pradesh elections.
By resigning from the Lok Sabha, Yadav has signalled that his primary focus is now on state politics, after his party was defeated by the BJP in the recent assembly elections but emerged as the main contender.
There have been claims that Azam Khan, another Samajwadi Party MP who, like Yadav, won the assembly elections, has also resigned as a Lok Sabha member, but Speaker Om Birla’s office has not confirmed this.
Khan is currently incarcerated on felony charges.
Though an MP is generally required to submit his resignation in person so that the Speaker can verify that he is resigning voluntarily and not under duress, former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary said that if a member is unable to come personally, the Chair can use other means to satisfy himself about the member’s decision to resign.
To file his paperwork, Yadav met with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at Parliament House. A short video of the Samajwadi Party supremo handing over the resignation letter to Birla was tweeted by the Samajwadi Party.
It is customary for the Chair to declare in the House that a member’s resignation has been accepted.
In the recent assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav defeated Union minister S P Singh Baghel to win the Karhal assembly seat in Mainpuri district.
Akhilesh was running in his first assembly election. Yadav was a member of the legislative council during his time as state chief minister.
In the assembly elections, which turned out to be a bipolar struggle, the BJP and its allies held power, while the Samajwadi Party-led alliance won 125 seats.
In addition to him, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has four additional members in the Lok Sabha, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, his father.