Lucknow: Seven-time MLA Mata Prasad Pandey was elevated by the Samajwadi Party as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Uttar Pradesh assembly to ensure the representation of upper castes amid its pitch of Pichhade, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (PDA).
The octogenarian’s name for the post of the Leader of Opposition had been decided by June, party sources told ThePrint.
In a meeting Sunday, the SP legislators authorised the party national president, Akhilesh Yadav, to choose his successor. Akhilesh had resigned from the post last month after getting elected to Parliament from Kannauj.
Subsequently, Akhilesh announced Pandey’s name as the LoP along with Mehboob Ali, Kamal Akhtar, and R.K.Verma as the leader of the party board, chief whip, and the deputy whip in the assembly.
While several names including Indrajeet Saroj, Shivpal Yadav, Ram Achal Rajbhar were doing the rounds, Pandey’s elevation was welcomed by most sections of the party given his seniority and stature, SP insiders said.
“Mata Prasad Pandey ji is 81. He has served as the UP assembly speaker twice and is well- versed with assembly proceedings. Most importantly, he is a non-controversial face who is acceptable to all, unlike Indrajeet Saroj and others. Shivpal Yadav was not chosen because it would have brought allegations of ‘parivarvad’ (nepotism),” a senior SP leader told ThePrint.
“Indrajeet Saroj’s son has become an MP at the youngest age while Tufani Saroj’s daughter has similarly been elected as an MP. Mata Prasad Pandey’s name had wide acceptability.”
Another SP veteran said that the party tried to strike a caste balance by electing a Brahmin face as the LoP given that backward classes, Dalits, and minorities were given priority in the general elections.
“Several of our MPs are backwards and Dalits, but PDA has an ‘A’ which includes the ‘agada’ (forward castes), too. Choosing Pandey means that the party is taking along all communities, including the upper castes. This will ensure a balance of all castes in the representation and also send a message ahead of the 2027 state polls that the party is not ignoring the upper castes amid its PDA pitch,” the veteran explained.
SP state president Shyam Lal Pal told ThePrint that the party is taking along all castes, adding that several of its socialist icons have been from upper castes, including Ram Manohar Lohia, Janeshwar Mishra, Brij Bhushan Tiwari, and Manoj Singh.
“The SP is truly working for the upliftment of the poor and the backwards, Dalits and minorities as well as taking along all castes. Some parties are only paying lip service to their cause,” he said.
Party sources said that Pandey’s selection also meant that other hopefuls would easily accept him as the LoP given his seniority. “The decision on the name was taken much earlier by June itself,” said a party leader.
However, UP deputy chief minister and BJP leader Keshav Maurya slammed the move, saying that the SP backstabbed the backward classes and that the BJP will repeat the 2017 poll results in 2027.
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Who is Mata Prasad Pandey
Having started his career with the Janata Party, Pandey is a Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalist whose brush with politics began in his student years. He was jailed in the early days of his politics.
He won on a Janata Party ticket from Itwa in 1980, and repeated the feat in 1985 and 1989 as Lok Dal and Janata Party candidates. In 1991 and 1996, he contested from the constituency on Janata Party and Samajwadi Party tickets, but came third.
Pandey was made the health minister in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 1991, and the labour and employment minister in 2003. He went on to register three consecutive wins from Itwa in 2002, 2007, and 2012.
While he lost to BJP’s Satish Chandra Dwivedi in 2017, he again went on to win from the seat in 2022. Pandey was the Speaker from 2004 to 2007 in Mulayam’s rule and then between 2012 and 2017 when Akhilesh was the CM.
Muslims, Kurmi elevated as well
The SP, which gave fewer tickets to Muslims in the Lok Sabha polls, also elevated Ali as the leader of the parliamentary board and Akhtar as the chief whip of the party.
A five-time MLA from Amroha, Mehboob Ali has served as a cabinet minister earlier. His family wields influence in the Amroha region due to its hold on the block-level politics there.
Known for his proximity to Mulayam, Kamal Akhtar’s political foray began with a Rajya Sabha nomination in 2004. Two years before, he wanted to try his luck from Hasanpur, but was denied a poll ticket.
He went on to win from Hasanpur in 2012 and became the panchayati raj minister. In the 2014 general elections, his wife Humaira Akhtar came second in Amroha. The next year, Akhtar was made the food and civil supplies minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government.
On the other hand, R.K. Verma is a three-time Kurmi MLA who was earlier with the BSP and the Apna Dal (S). Denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the BSP in 2014, he joined the Apna Dal (S) and went on to win the assembly bypolls from Vishwanathganj that year with the support of the BJP.
He again won from there in 2017 on an Apna Dal (S) ticket, but later switched to the SP ahead of the 2022 state polls. Verma then won from Raniganj in 2022.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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