india

Updated: Jul 16, 2019 08:02 IST

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Neeraj Shekhar resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Monday, revealing the unrest within Akhilesh Yadav’s party which won only five seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a pact with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which later walked out of the alliance.

A first-time Rajya Sabha MP, Shekhar is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a person familiar with the matter. “There have been discussions between him and BJP leaders,” this person said.

Shekhar’s term was to end in November next year, and the ruling BJP has numbers in the Uttar Pradesh assembly to win a by-election to this seat when it happens. Shekhar met Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday to hand over his resignation, which has been accepted, an official in Naidu’s office said. Later in the day, Shekhar met BJP president Amit Shah and others such as Rajya Sabha MPs Bhupendra Yadav, Anil Baluni and Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey.

Son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, a prominent Thakur face from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Shekhar has been upset with Akhilesh Yadav for ignoring his claim on his late father’s Ballia Lok Sabha seat in this summer elections, a second person familiar with the matter said.

“He was promised a ticket and denied at the last minute,” the second person said, asking not to be named. Akhilesh Yadav fielded former legislator Sanatan Pandey, considered Shekhar’s rival, from Ballia. The seat was won by the BJP’s Virendra Singh with a margin of 15,519 votes. Shekhar first won this seat in a bypoll in 2007, necessitated after his father’s death, and again in 2009, before losing it to the BJP in 2014.

“Shekhar also felt that his loyalists were getting an unfair deal in the Samajwadi Party,” the second person cited above said. “The relationship between him and Akhilesh turned sour after the elections.” An SP leader contended that Akhilesh Yadav felt Shekhar did not work for the party, and helped the BJP’s candidate in the Lok Sabha elections to defeat Pandey in Ballia.

Shekhar’s resignation will bring down the SP’s tally in the Upper House to 12 and the strength of the House to 240.

The BJP is the largest political party in the House with 78 MPs, and it can hope to improve the tally by one when the bypoll for the seat vacated by Shekhar is conducted.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance also has 13 MPs of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, six of Janata Dal (United), and three each of the Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal. BJP allies Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People’s Front, Naga Peoples Front, Republican Party of India (A) and Sikkim Democratic Front have one MP each.

This takes the NDA’s tally in the Rajya Sabha to 108. It also has support of four independents and three nominated MPs.