Ritesh Pandey (born 3 April 1981) is an Indian politician serving as the Member of Parliament from

Ambedkar Nagar Ambedkar Nagar is a district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This district is a part of Faizabad division (officially ''Ayodhya division'') in the Awadh region of the state. This district was established on 29 September 1995 by carvin ...

constituency. He is a member of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level 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), alon ...

(BSP) from the state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He was also a MLA from

Jalalpur Jalalpur is a town, tehsil and a municipal board in Ambedkar Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Geography Jalalpur is located at . It has an average elevation of . The city is directly connected to Azamgarh, Akbarpu ...

constituency in Ambedkar Nagar district, which he represented between June 2017 and May 2019 before elected as MP in (

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

). He was appointed the Leader of the BSP in the Lok Sabha in January 2020. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Deputy Leader.

Personal life

Pandey was born in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

on 3 April 1981 to politician Rakesh Pandey and Manju Pandey. His father is a former

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from

. His older brother, Ashish Pandey is a

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

businessman. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in international business management from the European Business School in London in the year 2005.

Politics

In the 2019 Indian Parliamentary Elections, Pandey won the Lok Sabha polls from Ambedkar Nagar by defeating his closest rival from the BJP, Mukut Bihari, with a winning margin of 95880 votes. In the assembly elections of 2017, he was elected as a MLA from the

constituency, with a victory margin of 90303 votes. In 2012, Pandey unsuccessfully contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, losing to

Sher Bahadur Singh Sher Bahadur Singh (died January 19, 2020) was an Indian politician in Uttar Pradesh. He served 5 times as Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) Uttar Pradesh for Jalalpur (Assembly constituency). He was firstly elected member of Uttar Prad ...

from the

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

. Pandey has been ranked 19th in the Parliamentary Business Survey among 539 MPs in the country. He is the youngest MP to appear in the Top-20. Pandey has also got an excellent grade for the expenditure incurred on development works. He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Papers Laid on the Table of the House. In 2020, he became the Floor Leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the Lok Sabha, becoming one of the youngest parliamentarians to lead a major national party in Parliament. Pandey is also an active member of multiple parliamentary committees such as the Standing Committee on External Affairs, the Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2021.

Social work

Pandey is the chairman of the Raghuraji Devi Foundation Trust who works on reforming education and promoting youth cultural events. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Awadh Mutineers, a grassroots sports initiative that trains and supports underprivileged children for playing football.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandey, Ritesh 1981 births Living people India MPs 2019–present Uttar Pradesh MLAs 2017–2022 Alumni of European Business School London Politicians from Lucknow Bahujan Samaj Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh