In the wake of the Samajwadi Party’s defeat in Uttar Pradesh, party chief Akhilesh Yadav is likely to quit the Karhal seat, which he won during his maiden ASSEMBLY elections, and remain as A Member of Lok Sabha from Azamgarh.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. (ANI)
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“Now that we have not won the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and are not forming the government, it’s an obvious step for the party president to quit the Karhal seat and continue in Parliament. It’s not official yet but will be soon. The party will make the announcement in due course of time,” a senior party leader aware of the development said, seeking anonymity.
If Yadav resigns as MLA, it will mean that he will not be the leader of Opposition in the state assembly.
SP leader Sobaran Singh Yadav, who won from Karhal seat in the 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 assembly elections and had stepped aside to allow Yadav to contest from the constituency this year, is likely to be the party’s candidate if a bypoll takes place. Karhal is in Mainpuri, which is considered a bastion of the SP.
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In the recently-held elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 255 of 403 seats. The SP, its main rival in a bipolar contest, won 111 seats.
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In the recently-held elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 255 of 403 seats. The SP, its main rival in a bipolar contest, won 111 seats.
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Yadav won from Karhal seat, defeating BJP MP SP Singh Baghel by 67,504 votes.
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.
