Lucknow: Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey on Tuesday resigned from the post of party’s chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Manoj Kumar Pandey submitted his resignation letter to the party chief. 

According to sources, Pandey may contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections from BJP. Sources revealed that BJP leader Daya Shankar is in touch with and has also arrived at his house.

This comes a day after he skipped a meeting called by party chief Akhilesh Yadav on the Rajya Sabha elections.

In a letter to Yadav, the SP leader said, "You had appointed me as chief whip of Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh Assembly. I am resigning as the chief whip. Kindly accept my resignation." Pandey is an MLA from Unchahar constituency in Raebareli. He was a cabinet minister in the previous Akhilesh Yadav government.

As many as eight SP MLAs did not attend a meeting called by the Yadav on Monday. A senior SP leader, requesting anonymity, said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections. However, Pandey and seven other MLAs -- Mukesh Verma, Maharaji Prajapati, Pooja Pal, Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh did not attend the meeting.

(With PTI inputs)