Seven-time MLA Mata Prasad Pandey is SP's pick for UP Assembly LoP

The Samajwadi Party on Sunday appointed seven-time MLA Mata Prasad Pandey the leader of opposition (LoP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

Pandey, 82, will replace SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who resigned as MLA from Karhal seat in Mainpuri district after he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj.

Akhilesh Yadav has appointed Pandey, SP MLA from Itwa in Siddharth Nagar district, the leader of opposition in the assembly, a party leader said.

At a meeting held earlier at the SP headquarters here, the party MLAs had authorised Akhilesh Yadav to choose the LoP.

The SP also appointed Kamaal Akhtar as the chief whip and Rakesh Kumar alias R K Verma as the deputy whip in the assembly, a party release said.

Pandey, a Brahmin, has held the post of Uttar Pradesh Assembly speaker twice: from 2004 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2017.

He was first elected as MLA in 1980 and then in 1985 and 1989. He served as state health minister between 1990 and 1991 in the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's government.

He was the labour and employment minister in Mulayam Singh Yadav's government between 2002 and 2004.