New Delhi: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday, March 22, submitted his resignation from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
Akhilesh Yadav had won the Karhal assembly seat in the recently-held assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. This was the first time Akhilesh contested an assembly election. Karhal, an Yadav-majority seat, is in Mainpuri which has traditionally been a Samajwadi Party stronghold. The Lok Sabha constituency has been with the SP for nine consecutive terms.
Sitting MP and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is representing it for the fifth time. Besides Akhilesh and Mulayam, the SP has three other members in the Lok Sabha.
The move is the clearest indication in recent times of Akhilesh deciding to concentrate on state politics.
In alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and several smaller parties, Akhilesh’s SP had sought to train the focus of the Uttar Pradesh election to livelihood issues.
The party won 111 seats and was beaten by Bharatiya Janata Party which won 255.
“Starting the political campaign merely months before the elections and to end up with 36% vote share, it has emerged as the other dominant narrative in the state,” Ankur Bisen had noted in his analysis of vote share percentages for The Wire. Bisen had also written that the SP should focus on holding and expanding on its political alliance and mobilisation.
(With PTI inputs)