Mahendra Nath Pandey (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian politician who was Minister of Heavy Industries and Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India and Member of Lok Sabha for

Chandauli Chandauli is a town and a nagar panchayat in Chandauli district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Chandauli District. Geography Chandauli is located at . It has an average elevation of . Located ab ...

from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. He is a member of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

and was the president of the party's Uttar Pradesh unit. He has also served as Union

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

for

Ministry of Human Resource Development Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

between 2016 and 2017. He is a member of Modi's second ministry. On 30 May 2019, he was appointed as Cabinet minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India.

Early life

Pandey was born at

Pakhanpur Pakhanpur is a village in Nagina, Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Pincode of Pakhanpur is 246762. Head (Pradhan) of Village Pakhanpur is Amit Chauhan Population According to 2011 census the population Population is a set of human ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

to Sudhakar Pandey and Chandrawati Pandey in a

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

family. He received a

postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

degree in

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

and completed his Ph.D in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

from

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

. In 1973, he was elected president of the students' union of C.M. Anglo Bengali College. Five years later, he became the general secretary of the students' union of Banaras Hindu University. Pandey spent five months in prison during the Emergency. In 1978, he joined

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

. He took part in the

Ram Janmabhoomi Ram Janmabhoomi () is the site that, according to Hindu religious beliefs, is the birthplace of Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu rive ...

movement and was booked under the National Security Act by the

Mulayam Singh Yadav Mulayam Singh Yadav (22 November 1939 – 10 October 2022) was an Indian politician, a socialism, socialist figure and founder of the Samajwadi Party. Over the course of his political career spanning more than six decades, he served for three t ...

-led state government. In 1991, Pandey was elected to the

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, also known as Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house. Member of the Legislative Assembl ...

for the first time. In 1996, he was re-elected to the assembly. He received the portfolio of Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development the following year in the

Kalyan Singh Kalyan Singh (5 January 1932 – 21 August 2021) was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Utta ...

ministry. He also served as Minister of State for Planning (Independent charge) between 1998 and 2000, and Minister of State, Panchayati Raj between 2000 and 2002. Ahead of the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

announced that Pandey would contest from the Chandauli constituency of

Purvanchal Purvanchal () is the region of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchal is also a proposed state in India, encompassing 32 eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh. The proposal, introduced in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 2011 by then Chief ...

. He was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

after defeating his nearest rival Anil Maurya of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...

by a margin of approximately 150,000 votes. Subsequently, he was made a member of

Standing Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

Rural Development Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life, quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural povert ...

and Consultative Committee for Ministry of Steel and Mines. On 5 July 2016, in a major cabinet reshuffle, Pandey took the oath of office as Union

for

Human Resource Development Training and development involves improving the effectiveness of organizations and the individuals and teams within them. Training may be viewed as being related to immediate changes in effectiveness via organized instruction, while development ...

in the

First Modi ministry The First Narendra Modi ministry is the Council of Ministers headed by Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2014 general election which was held in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May in 2014. The results of the election were announced on ...

. On 31 August 2017, he was replaced by Satyapal Singh. That same day, he was appointed president of the

unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He replaced

Keshav Prasad Maurya Keshav Prasad Maurya (born 7 May 1969) is an Indian politician, currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Maurya was associated with a right-wing Hindu organization Rashtriy ...

. In the Cabinet announcement made on 31 May 2019, Pandey has been given the post of Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the 17th Lok Sabha under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Personal life

Pandey's family originally hails from the village of

. He married Pratima Pandey on 8 February 1985 and they have one daughter.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandey, Mahendra Nath Living people India MPs 2014–2019 People from Chandauli district Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh 1957 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1991–1993 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1997–2002 Politicians from Ghazipur Narendra Modi ministry India MPs 2019–2024