SP gensec quits party, UP assembly

Former Uttar Pradesh minister and Samajwadi Party general secretary Naresh Agarwal on Saturday resigned from the party and the legislative assembly.

Agarwal handed over his resignation from the state Assembly to UP Vidhan Sabha Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar on Saturday morning.

The resignation of Agarwal, who was also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has been accepted, the Speaker told UNI in Lucknow.

Agarwal, an MLA from Hardoi Assembly constituency, was a Cabinet minister for Power and Transport in the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav-led government.

Earlier, he was a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government from his erstwhile UP Loktantrik Congress party.

He later joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav merging his party with Samajwadi Party and was appointed as the party general secretary.