Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was elected leader of the SP Legislature Party during a meeting of newly-elected party MLAs in Lucknow on Saturday.
With this, Akhilesh Yadav was appointed leader of the opposition in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
Principal Secretary (UP assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey issued an official notification stating that Akhilesh Yadav has been appointed leader of opposition in UP assembly with effect from March 26.
The order has been issued as per the Section 2 (h) of UP Legislature (Members Emoluments and Pensions) Act, 1980.
The 111 legislators of the SP unanimously elected Akhilesh Yadav as the leader of Samajwadi Party Legislature Party. On Tuesday, Akhilesh had decided to retain the Karhal assembly seat and give up his Lok Sabha membership from the Azamgarh constituency.
SP state president Naresh Uttam said at a press conference after the meeting that Akhilesh Yadav had been elected leader of the SP Legislature Party. He said the proposal to elect him SPLP leader was made by senior MLA of the party, Awadhesh Prasad, and it was supported by all elected MLAs.
He said Akhilesh Yadav would soon meet leaders of SP allies to discuss the issues that the opposition parties would raise in the assembly.
“The MLAs have given their blessings to Akhileshji to raise the issues faced by the people in the assembly. He will oppose the wrong policies of the government as per democratic principles. In the past, the Bharatiya Janata Party has cheated the people of the state and hence, the tally of seats of the BJP has been reduced as compared to the 2017 assembly elections. The people have shown confidence in the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav,” Patel said.
A first-time MLA, Yadav resigned as Azamgarh MP earlier this week after he was elected legislator from family stronghold Karhal in UP's Mainpuri district. Sources said the former chief minister intended to take on the BJP on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha with an eye on the 2027 polls in the politically significant state.
SP was the main challenger to the BJP in this year's assembly election. While Akhilesh’s party finished a distant second, winning 111 seats in the 403-member assembly, it managed to record a massive jump in its vote share and clocked its best show in state polls ever.
Sources say Akhilesh Yadav's strategists believe it is a necessity not a choice to keep the party's vote share intact and also to avoid the perception that the SP chief, the party's biggest vote-getter, is "running away" after his party’s defeat.
The party's top leaders fear that if their chief is not proactive in state politics, the Muslim and Yadav voters, who apparently backed the party in the polls, may drift to other parties.
Akhilesh Yadav has termed his resignation as MP a necessary sacrifice. "Crores of people of UP have given us a moral victory in the assembly polls. To honour this, I will represent Karhal and always remain committed to the progress of Azamgarh," he said in a tweet after submitting his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.