| Ritesh Pandey | |
| Office: | Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha |
| Term Start: | 23 May 2019 |
| Term End: | 4 June 2024 |
| Successor: | Lalji Verma |
| Predecessor: | Hari Om Pandey |
| Constituency: | Ambedkar Nagar |
| Office1: | Member (MLA) of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly |
| Term Start1: | March 2017 |
| Term End1: | May 2019 |
| Successor1: | Subhash Rai |
| Predecessor1: | Sher Bahadur Singh |
| Constituency1: | Jalalpur |
| Birth Date: | 1981 4, df=yes[1] |
| Birth Place: | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Parents: | Rakesh Pandey |
| Party: | Bharatiya Janata Party (2024-present) |
| Otherparty: | Bahujan Samaj Party (2019-2024) |
| Residence: | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh |
| Profession: | Agriculture, business, social work[2] |
| Website: | https://www.riteshpandey.in |
Ritesh Pandey (born 3 April 1981) is an Indian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament from Ambedkar Nagar constituency. He was a member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from the state of Uttar Pradesh.[3] Pandey resigned from Bahujan Samaj Party and joined Bharatiya Janata Party in February 2024.[4] He was also a MLA from Jalalpur constituency in Ambedkar Nagar district, which he represented between June 2017 and May 2019 before elected as MP in (Lok Sabha).[5] He was appointed the Leader of the BSP in the Lok Sabha in January 2020.[6] Prior to this appointment, he served as the Deputy Leader.[7] According to his election filing he has 30 crores as his assets.[8]
Pandey was born in Lucknow on 3 April 1981 to politician Rakesh Pandey and Manju Pandey.[9] [10] His father is a former Member of Parliament from Ambedkar Nagar. His older brother, Ashish Pandey is a real estate businessman.[11] [12] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in international business management from the European Business School in London in the year 2005.[2] [12]
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.[13] In the assembly elections of 2017, he was elected as a MLA from the Jalalpur constituency, with a victory margin of 90303 votes. In 2012, Pandey unsuccessfully contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, losing to Sher Bahadur Singh from the Samajwadi Party.[14] 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.[15] [16] He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Papers Laid on the Table of the House.[17] 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.[18] 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,[19] 2019 and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2021.[20] In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Pandey lost to Samajwadi Party's Lalji Verma.[21]
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.[22]