UP assembly speaker lets Samajwadi Party withdraw plea to disqualify Shivpal Yadav as MLA

Uttar Pradesh assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit has allowed the Samajwadi Party (SP) to withdraw its plea for disqualification of party MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav.

"SP has presented a petition before me for disqualification of membership of party MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav on Sep 4, 2019. SP leader Ram Govind Choudhary later gave an application on Mar 23 for withdrawal of the petition as important documents and evidence could not be produced," the speaker said on Wednesday.

"After going through the documents, I approve Chowdhury's request for withdrawal of the petition," he added.

Asked about the development, a senior SP leader said, "Our party president is of the view that the party will not go ahead with the disqualification proceedings. People of the state will decide their fate."

He denied rumours of Shivpal coming close to the party chief again. SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav had earlier announced that his party would not press for disqualification of Shivpal Yadav. Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of Akhilesh Yadav, was elected from the Jaswantnagar assembly constituency in the 2017 State elections. He later floated a new party, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), and contested the recent Lok Sabha election on its symbol from the Firozabad seat.