Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav being greeted by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal at the Parliament House complex on the first day of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, in New Delhi, on June 24, 2024. SP MPs Dimple Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and Awadhesh Prasad are also seen.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav was the centre of attention in the Lok Sabha on Monday as his party emerged as the giant-killer in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) in the recent Lok Sabha election.
With 37 MPs, the SP has become the third largest party in the Lok Sabha, after the BJP and the Congress. In U.P., the SP emerged as the single largest party, and together with the Congress, the INDIA bloc won 43 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. This has been the best performance of the SP in the past two decades.
Along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool leader Kalyan Banerjee, Mr. Yadav and Awadhesh Prasad were seated in the front row of the Opposition benches.
In a prestige battle, Mr. Prasad defeated the two-time sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh from Faizabad, the constituency that comprises Ayodhya, by a margin of 54,567 votes.
While Mr. Yadav was walking out of the Lok Sabha with a few of his colleagues, just before the House broke for lunch, he was being greeted by other Opposition members who congratulated him on his party’s performance in U.P.
Show of strength
Before the session started, INDIA bloc MPs assembled outside the Parliament building holding copies of the Constitution in a show of strength. Though a key member of the bloc, the SP held its own demonstration with a different version of the Constitution outside the Samvidhan Sadan or the old Parliament House.
Other INDIA MPs had assembled at the spot where the Mahatma Gandhi statue was earlier placed. When Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi were joining the main INDIA bloc protest, Mr. Yadav was seen introducing them to Mr. Prasad, the new MP from Faizabad.
Attacking the BJP over the recent question paper leak of the NEET-UG exam, Mr. Yadav said, “This is not a new thing. This is BJP’s old history of leaking papers to keep their own people happy.” “This was a big issue in U.P. and now it has reached Delhi. See how they have cheated crores of families,” Mr. Yadav added.