LUCKNOW : Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and jailed SP leader Azam Khan on Tuesday resigned from the Lok Sabha, after being elected to the state legislative assembly.
A senior SP leader confirmed to The Indian Express that Akhilesh and Azam have resigned from their parliamentary seats of Azamgarh and Rampur. “Akhileshji has chosen to serve as an MLA from Karhal in Mainpuri district. Similarly, Azam will serve as an MLA from the Rampur Assembly seat,” said the leader.
In the recently concluded state polls, Akhilesh had won the Karhal seat after securing 1,48,196 votes, while BJP’s SP Singh Baghel came a distant second after getting 80,692 votes. This was Akhilesh’s first state election, after he had taken the MLC route to become the chief minister in 2012.
Azam had won the Rampur seat by a margin of 55,141 votes against BJP’s Akash Saxena. He had been elected a Lok Sabha member from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
Akhilesh on Tuesday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and tendered his resignation, with a strong indication emerging that he will lead the Opposition in the state Assembly.
He was elected an MP from Azamgarh in 2019 after getting 6.21 lakh votes, against BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ who came second with 3.61 lakh votes. His father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had won from the seat in 2014.
