Akhilesh Yadav, Azam Khan resign from Lok Sabha, to battle it out in UP

New Delhi, March 22

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and SP MP Azam Khan on Tuesday resigned as the members of Lok Sabha from Azamgarh and Rampur constituencies, deciding to retain the Karhal and Rampur assembly seats they won in the recently held Uttar Pradesh polls.

The decision to retain the assembly seats by these two leaders is a clear indication that the SP will continue to fight the BJP on its home turf.

The presence of Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan- whenever he is released from jail-in the state assembly is bound to give trouble to the ruling BJP.

By quitting as a Lok Sabha member, Yadav has made it clear that he would now concentrate on state politics.

Yadav met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in Parliament House to put in his papers. The Samajwadi Party tweeted a short video of the party supremo handing over the resignation letter to Birla.

It is usual for the Chair to announce the acceptance of a member’s resignation in the House.

Akhilesh Yadav had won the Karhal assembly seat in Mainpuri district in the recently-held assembly polls, defeating Union minister S P Singh Baghel.

This was the first assembly election Akhilesh had contested. During his tenure as the state chief minister, Yadav was a member of the legislative council.

The BJP and its allies retained power while the Samajwadi Party-led alliance bagged 125 seats in the assembly polls which turned out to be a bipolar contest. Agencies