Samajwadi Party expels three MLAs for supporting BJP

In UP, the Samajwadi Party took more than one to expel three of its MLAs, who allegedly cross-voted and helped the BJP win the Rajya Sabha polls last year, for siding with ideologies opposed to the party's core values and working against public interest.Those expelled from the party are Abhay Singh (MLA from Gosainganj in Ayodhya), Rakesh Pratap Singh (Gauriganj in Amethi) and Manoj Kumar Pandey (Unchahar in Raebareli), the SP said in an official statement shared on its social media handles.The move comes more than a year after the February 2024 Rajya Sabha elections in which the three SP MLAs were accused of siding with the BJP, helping it win 8 out of 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh despite the SP's strength to claim at least four.‘’These MLAs were given ample time to mend their ways and regret their actions but they continued their anti-party activities,’’ the SP said.

समाजवादी सौहार्दपूर्ण सकारात्मक विचारधारा की राजनीति के विपरीत साम्प्रदायिक विभाजनकारी नकारात्मकता व किसान, महिला, युवा, कारोबारी, नौकरीपेशा और ‘पीडीए विरोधी’ विचारधारा का साथ देने के कारण, समाजवादी पार्टी जनहित में निम्नांकित विधायकों को पार्टी से निष्कासित करती है:

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— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) June 23, 2025

Interestingly, Akhilesh spared four other party legislators Rakesh Pandey, Pooja Pal, Vinod Chaturvedi and Ashutosh Maurya, who had also cross voted in the RS biennial polls along with the three expelled MLAs.Cross voting by the SP MLAs during the RS polls last year had enabled the eighth BJP nominee Sanjay Seth to scrape through though the saffron party had the numbers to ensure victory of only seven candidates. Reacting to his expulsion, Manoj Pandey said that he was happy to finally get rid of the people who were against Lord Rama.