Mata Prasad Pandey (born 31 December 1942) is an Indian politician and former Speaker of

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 two terms. At present he is representing Itwa 305 constituency in Siddharthnagar of

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 ...

. He is currently serving as the

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

Career timeline

* Elected Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1980, 1985, 1989, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2022 * Participated in several political movements and imprisoned several times for movement for upliftment of the poor and down trodden people of the society. * He has been member of Assurance Committee, Petition Committee, Delegated Legislation Committee, Parliamentary Research, Reference and Studies Committee, Rules Committee, Question and Reference Committee, Business Advisory Committee, Privilege Committee and Public Accounts Committee of the

. * Minister for Health in 1991 and Minister for Labour and Employment in 2003. * Speaker,

26.07.2004 to 18.05.2007

Political career

Pandey was a trusted man of

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 ...

and he has been jailed several times in his early political career. He was active in political protests since his student days. He won his first assembly election in 1980 as a candidate of

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

from Itwa Assembly constituency. He repeated this victory in 1985 and 1989, as a candidate of

Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former Prime Minister Charan Singh. It was founded on 26 September 1979 by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party (Limaye) and Orissa Janata Party ...

and Janata Party respectively. He lost the assembly elections of 1991 and 1996. In 1996, he was a candidate of Samajwadi Party. Pandey, however, was made minister of health in Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 1991 and in the year 1993, he was made minister for labour and employment. He registered four electoral victories in assembly elections of 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2022 thereafter. Pandey was a senior leader of Samajwadi Party, having served in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for multiple terms. In 2024, he was one of the most eligible contender for the post of leader of opposition besides Indrajeet Saroj and Shivpal Yadav in Samajwadi Party. However, he was chosen over others by party chief Akhilesh Yadav with the strategy to slice BJP's upper caste base. In July 2024, Pandey was formally appointed as the leader of opposition in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Conferences attended

# 50th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (Quebec City/Toronto) Canada: 2004. # 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference Colombo, Sri Lanka: 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandey, Mata Prasad Speakers of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Living people 1942 births Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2012–2017 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1980–1985 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1985–1989 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1989–1991 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2002–2007 Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2007–2012 State cabinet ministers of Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Janata Dal politicians Janata Party politicians People from Siddharthnagar district Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2022–2027