Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday resigned from his Karhal seat in UP assembly following his election to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj. 

With the resignation of Akhilesh Yadav from the UP assembly, the post of leader of opposition in the assembly has fallen vacant.

Awadhesh Prasad, MLA from Milkipur in Ayodhya district, also resigned from his membership of UP assembly as he has been elected to Lok Sabha from Faizabad constituency. A letter regarding his resignation was received by the office of Principal Secretary of the Legislative Assembly, Pradeep Dubey.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was elected to UP assembly from Karhal in the 2022 UP assembly elections and was designated as leader of the opposition in the state assembly.

On Tuesday, the SP chief announced his decision to retain the Lok Sabha seat and resign from Uttar Pradesh’s Karhal assembly seat.

“I have met the workers of Karhal and Mainpuri and told them that since I have won elections from two seats, I have to leave one. So, I will inform you about leaving the Vidhan Sabha seat soon,” Akhilesh Yadav said in a press conference on Tuesday.

When asked who would be the next leader of the opposition, Yadav said, “The decision will be taken by the party in a way that is beneficial for the party and increases the party’s vote share.”

Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav had resigned as MP from Kannauj in March 2012, after he took over as the chief minister of UP. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 2019 from Azamgarh. In 2022, he resigned from Lok Sabha after he was elected to UP assembly from Karhal assembly constituency in Mainpuri district.

Earlier, the SP announced that Akhilesh Yadav would be the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha.

The SP put up an impressive show in the Lok Sabha elections, winning 37 out of the 80 seats in the state. The former chief minister himself won the party’s stronghold Kannauj, defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Subrat Pathak by over 1,70,922 votes.

In the Lok Sabha elections in UP, the SP won 37 seats, the BJP bagged 33 seats, Congress won six seats, Rashtriya Lok Dal two, and Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) and Apna Dal (Sonelal) won one seat each.