New Delhi: Samajwadi Party leader Neeraj Shekhar resigned as member of Rajya Sabha on Monday, and his resignation was accepted by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.
Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, is on his way to the ruling BJP, sources say. The 50-year-old Samajwadi Party leader’s Rajya Sabha term was till next year.
Neeraj Shekhar had contested and won from his father’s Ballia constituency as a Samajwadi Party candidate in bypolls in 2007. In 2009, he was re-elected from the constituency. After his resignation, the Akhilesh Yadav’s party has left with only nine members in the Rajya Sabha besides five in the Lok Sabha. His rift with Akhilesh Yadav widened after he was denied the chance to contest again from Ballia in the recent national election.
The Congress has already lost most of its members in Goa and now fears it will lose more in Karnataka, wherein several lawmakers have quit, leaving the Congress-Janata Dal Secular alliance government scrambling for numbers.
