Senior Samajwadi Party leader and MlC Ashok Bajpai resigned from the membership of legislative Council on Wednesday and tendered his resignation to Chairman of legislative Council Ramesh Yadav. A former minister and seven-times MlA from Hardoi, Bajpai cited no reason in his resignation letter.
Said ro be close to SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ashok Bajpai is the fourth MlC of Samajwadi Party to resign from the party and membership of legislative Council in the last 12 days. With his resignation, the effective strength of the SP in the 100-member Council has come down from 66 to 62.
Bajpai, whose term as MlC ends on January 30, 202, said after submitting the resignation, “I am hurt by the humiliation heaped on party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav by the present leadership of the party.’’
“fter founding the party, Mulayam Singh single-handedly fought hostile forces to bring the outfit to this level which won the Assembly election and formed the government on its own in 2012. In the same party, he has suddenly become a persona non grata. There is no justification for me to be in a party where the founder has been marginalised,’’ said the former MlC.
SP sources said that Bajpai’s resignation has set the alarm bells ringing for SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. “The SP brass can no longer console itself by laying the passing the to the BJP for desertion of its four MlCs. It’s a wakeup call for Akhilesh to decipher the hidden message behind the spate of resignations. All four MlCs who resigned were confidantes of Mulayam Singh so the message is clear for Akhilesh,’’ said a senior SP leader.
“By asking his confidantes to resign, Mulayam Singh has given clear message to Akhilesh to come to negotiating table for settling the dispute in the family. Akhilesh cannot be the sole inheritor of Mulayam Singh’s political legacy,’’ said the SP leader.
The SP leader added, ``Akhilesh is simply no match to the strength of BJP led by the Modi-Shah duo.’’
Meanwhile, sources close to Ashok Bajpai said, “The decision to resign from Council and the SP was not taken in a hurry. It is a well considered decision and was in the pipeline since the Assembly elections in March.’’
Sources said three more MlCs - Ram Sakal Gujjar, Virendra Singh Gujjar and Narendra Bhati were likely to desert the Samajwadi Party and resign from the legislative Council.