Akhilesh Yadav warns of appropriate action against rebel SP MLAs at the right time

Lucknow, Feb 28 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) President, Akhilesh Yadav, said on Wednesday that appropriate action would be initiated against the party’s rebel MLAs at the right time.

Akhilesh Yadav’s statement came a day after the party's chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Manoj Pandey, quit while voting was underway for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from the state on Tuesday.

The SP’s National Spokesperson, Rajendra Chaudhary, said that the rebel MLAs would be served a show cause notice and further action against them would be taken thereafter.

Akhilesh Yadav said that it remains to be seen how these rebel MLAs face the people in their constituencies because they had won after defeating the BJP candidates on those seats.

"It also remains to be seen what package these people have received for their votes," he added.

Meanwhile, BSP leader Guddu Jamali a.k.a Shah Alam joined the SP on Wednesday. His joining the SP seems to be the immediate fallout of the BSP voting for the BJP in Tuesday's Rajya Sabha polls.

Jamali, who had joined and then quit the SP in 2019, said that this time he was here to stay because he had realised that the PDA formula would be implemented in spirit by the SP. Guddu Jamali wields considerable influence in Azamgarh and adjoining districts.

The acronym PDA coined by Akhilesh Yadav stands for P (pichhada or backward classes), D (Dalits) and A (Alpsankhyak or minorities, including Muslims).

The three communities, taken together, comprise roughly 80-85 per cent of the total population of the state -- the electorate that the SP is trying to consolidate for the LS polls.