Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav
Sources close to Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav have told us that he is likely to resign as an MLA.
Yadav, a Lok Sabha MP from Azamgarh, won the Karhal Assembly seat in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh with a margin of 67,504 votes. His nearest rival was party minister SP Singh Baghel – an opponent he had defeated on 16 May 2019 during the Assembly election held earlier this year. Yadav secured 1,48,196 votes versus 80,692 for Baghel-winning by 63 percent to 37 percent respectively despite his own party’s dismal performance.
SP candidate Karhal Yadav secured a whopping 60.12% of the vote, while BJP’s Ajay Baghel got 32.74%. This is the first time SP leader Yadav has been contesting an election on his own and he fared quite well in the polls that saw him become the CM for three terms between 2007-2012 before being unseated by Akhilesh Yogi over allegations of nepotism in May 2017
Sources have confirmed that Samajwadi Party’s Muslim face, Azam Khan, who contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections while being jailed and won polls from the Rampur assembly seat will resign as an MLA in order to resume his Lok Sabha membership.
Former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and nine-term MLA Akhilesh Das Khan of the Samajwadi Party registered victory against nearest rival BJP’s Honey Saxena from Rampur by a margin of over 55,000 votes. He got 1,31,000 (or 59.71 per cent) total votes counted while she polled 76,084 (or 34.62 percent) in her favour.
Khan is now languishing in Sitapur jail, as multiple charges of theft, criminal intimidation and land encroachment have been lodged against him.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav will chair a meeting of the newly-elected members of the party at their office in Lucknow on March 21.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has retained power in Uttar Pradesh. The party won a majority of the 403 seats in the state and is set to continue with its Yogi Adityanath-led government once again. The saffron party alone pocketed 255 seats, Apna Dal (S) took 12, NISHAD 6, while Samajwadi Party finished second with 111 wins
