Ritesh Pandey

Ritesh Pandey is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Lok Sabha constituency of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. He is a member of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha constituency was created in 2008, as part of the delimitation exercise carried out by the Delimitation Commission of India. The constituency comprises assembly constituencies of Goshainganj, Katehari, Tanda, Jalalpur and Akbarpur.

Ritesh belongs to a family with political background. His father Rakesh Pandey won the first Lok Sabha election from Ambedkar Nagar in 2009. In the meanwhile, Ritesh had also started honing his political skills. He had served as deputy leader of BSP. In 2020, he was given the role to serve as the leader of BSP in Lok Sabha. Prior to his Lok Sabha win, Ritesh had served as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Jalalpur constituency. He resigned in 2019 after his win in general elections.

The 2019 general elections in Uttar Pradesh will be remembered for a long time. That’s because it was largely a game of BJP versus the rest. Parties like BSP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and others had formed an alliance called ‘Mahagathbandhan’ to take on BJP. The alliance had a lot of potential, but somehow it did not achieve desired results. Only a few constituencies such as Ambedkar Nagar were won by the alliance. Lack of proper coordination between alliance partners is said to have resulted in failure of ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

In 2019 general election, Ritesh Pandey defeated his nearest rival Mukut Bihari Verma of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a margin of more than 95 thousand votes. In the earlier election in 2014, the seat was won by Hari Om Pandey of BJP.

Early Life and Education

Ritesh Pandey was born on April 03, 1981 to Shri Rakesh Pandey and Smt. Manju Pandey. He was born in Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. His educational qualifications include B.A. (International Marketing and Finance). He had studied at European Business School, Regent’s University, London.

Political Career

Ritesh Pandey got exposure to political world at an early age, as he comes from a family with political background. This must have helped him in his political career.

• 2017 – 2019: Member, Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly
• May, 2019: Elected to 17th Lok Sabha
• 13 Sept. 2019 onwards: Member, Standing Committee on External Affairs
• 12 Dec. 2019 onwards: Member, Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019
• 13 Jan. 2020 onwards: Leader, B. S. P. Legislative Party, Lok Sabha
• 12 Dec. 2019 onwards: Special Invitee, Business Advisory Committee; Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
• 16 Oct. 2020 onwards: Chairperson, Committee on Papers Laid on the Table

Personal Pursuits

Ritesh has interests in sports, music, reading, film and theatre.