Lucknow, July 29, 2024: In a surprise move, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has appointed 81-year-old veteran Brahmin leader Mata Prasad Pandey as the new Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Uttar Pradesh. Pandey replaces Akhilesh Yadav, who quit the Assembly to retain the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat he won in the recent parliamentary polls.
Pandey, a seven-term MLA from Itwa in eastern UP’s Sidharthanagar district, has previously served as Assembly Speaker during the tenure of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led government in 2004 and again when Akhilesh led the SP to power in 2012.
The appointment of Pandey, a Brahmin leader, is seen as a strategic move by the SP to create balance in its Assembly leadership team and consolidate the community’s votes, especially in the Purvanchal region. The party has been focusing on reservation and its PDA (pichhde, Dalit, alpsankhyak) formula, and Pandey’s appointment is aimed at providing a more well-rounded appeal to the party.
Pandey’s first task will be to steer the SP through the five-day Monsoon Session, which begins today. The state government is set to table supplementary demands for grants on Tuesday.
In addition to Pandey’s appointment, the SP has also made two other significant appointments. Kanth MLA Kamal Akhtar will serve as the party’s chief whip in the Assembly, while Raniganj MLA R K Verma will serve as the deputy whip.
Pandey said, “This government has given only problems to people of the state, thus there is no dearth of issues to raise. We will fight for all these issues and raise them in the Assembly.” Akhilesh Yadav praised Pandey as a “prakash ka stambha (pillar of light)” and said his experience would benefit SP MLAs, the Speaker, the Chief Minister, and other ministers and MLAs.
