After days of discussion, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday decided to take on the BJP as Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He has retained the Karhal seat and submitted his resignation from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. He won the Karhal seat by defeating Union Minister S.P. Baghel by a margin of over 67,000 votes to become an MLA for the first time.
Senior party leader Azam Khan also quit from the Rampur Lok Sabha seat and decided to retain the Rampur Sadar seat that he won for the ninth time recently.
While experts praised Mr. Yadav for running an effective campaign, they also criticised him for being missing from the ground in the first 4.5 years of the BJP government. Recently, former Rashtriya Lok Dal president Masood Ahmed, in his resignation letter, pointed out that the key to the success of Mr. Yadav’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav was spending time among people.
