LUCKNOW: Days after the Samajwadi Party (SP) expelled three legislators, Abhay Singh (Gosainganj), Rakesh Pratap Singh (Gauriganj) and Manoj Pandey (Unchhahar), Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana on Thursday declared them “unattached members”.
After Speaker's declaration, political circles in the state capital are abuzz with speculations over Manoj Pandey joining the BJP.
As per the sources, the three MLAs will have to tread their future path cautiously to avoid any legal repercussions.
The letter issued by principal secretary, UP assembly, Pradeep Dubey, said that the three former SP MLAs were declared unattached with effect from July 9, 2025.
From the next session of the House, the three unattached MLAs will be allotted seats separate from the Samajwadi Party benches, Dubey said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had formally sent the letter of their expulsion from the party to the assembly secretariat on July 5, 2025.
With this, the strength of SP in the UP assembly has reduced to 104. The BJP and its allies together have a strength of 290. Congress has two MLAs, BSP one, and Raja Bhaiyya-led Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two legislators, while SBSP's Abbas Ansari has been disqualified after his conviction in a hate speech case recently.
All three were expelled from the Samajwadi Party on June 23, 2025 citing their behaviour against the ideological commitments of the party. Akhilesh had said that that all three were free to do what they wanted.
The SP claimed that the expelled lawmakers were initially given opportunities to correct their course but to no avail.
Though they were expelled from the party, the three legislators did not lose their membership. However, they would decide their future course of action only after the Speaker gives clarity after taking legal opinion on the issue.
The three MLAs had opened stirred controversy within Samajwadi Party by voting in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, helping the party win an extra seat during the Rajya Sabha election held in February, last year. These three MLAs were among the seven other SP lawmakers who allegedly cross voted in the crucial Rajya Sabha polls.