Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday expelled three rebel MLAs from the party after waiting for more than a year when they cross voted in the Rajya Sabha polls and openly campaigned for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
The expelled MLAs are Abhay Singh, from the Gosaiganj seat in Ayodhya; Rakesh Singh, from the Gauriganj seat in Amethi; and Manoj Pandey, from Dalmau in Rae Bareli district.
The SP said on its official Twitter handle that, “Samajwadi Party in public interest expels the following MLAs from the party due to their communal divisive negativity and supporting anti-farmer, women, youth, business, working professionals and ‘anti-PDA’ ideology, as opposed to the politics of socialist harmonious positive ideology.”
“The time limit of ‘grace-term’ given to these people for heart change is now completed, the remaining time limit remains due to their good behavior. There will be no place in the party for ‘anti-people’ persons in the future, and anti-party ideas will always be considered unforgivable. Wherever you live, be reliable! ” the post added.
All three rebel MLAs had been working against the SP for a long time. Earlier, it was expected that the SP would appeal to end their memberships in the assembly, but the party did not do so. With this decision of the SP, these three MLAs would be treated as unattached members.
In 2024, in the Rajya Sabha elections in UP, 7 SP MLAs went against the party line and indulged in cross-voting, favouring the BJP candidates. This incident gave a big blow to the SP, and because of this, the third Rajya Sabha candidate of the SP lost, while all eight Rajya Sabha candidates of the BJP won.
The cross-voting MLAs included Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Manoj Pandey, Pooja Pal, Vinod Chaturvedi, Ashutosh Maurya and Rakesh Pandey. Abhay Singh and Manoj Pandey later also took membership of the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls.
After this rebellion, the SP leadership warned of action against these MLAs, and now this expulsion is a step taken in the same direction. However, there are five more MLAs against whom the SP has not taken any concrete action, including the party’s MLA from the Chail assembly seat of Kaushambi district, Pooja Pal.