SP chief Akhilesh hails revocation of Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership

Hailing the revocation of the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said he hoped that the Uttar Pradesh assembly membership of party leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his son Abdulla Azam too will be restored.

The Lok Sabha membership of Gandhi was restored on Monday, days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored.

”First of all, I thank the Supreme Court. Its decision has increased faith in judiciary and democracy. This working style of the BJP is that it wants to take away the membership of (opposition) leaders,” Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the UP assembly, told reporters while going to attend the Monsoon session of the House.

”I hope the membership of others will also be revoked. The membership of Azam Khan, his son and others was taken away,” he added.

Apparently referring to BJP MP Ramshankar Katheria, who was sentenced to two years in prison by an MP-MLA court last week, Yadav said, ”Let’s see if the membership of others is also taken away.” Earlier, the SP president in a tweet said, ”While conspiring to take away the membership of the MPs and the MLAs of the opposition parties, the BJP itself has now become a victim. Now let’s see how quickly it suspends the membership of its MP and how quickly it restores the membership of others. The conspiracy of the BJP has now been exposed.” Talking to reporters outside the assembly, Yadav targeted the BJP government, saying it has failed to address the issues faced by the people of the state.

”Today, the public is crying. There is electricity crisis. Farmers are not getting the right price for their produce. Is the government ready to help them? Not a single new market has been opened. The one that opened was also closed.”