Ritesh Pandey

Ritesh Pandey (born 23 April 1981) is an Indian politician serving as the Member of Parliament from Ambedkar Nagar constituency. He is a member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was also a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Jalalpur constituency in Ambedkar Nagar, which he represented between June 2017 and May 2019. He was appointed as the Leader of the BSP in the Lok Sabha in January 2020. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Deputy Leader.

Personal life
Pandey was born in Lucknow and is the son of Rakesh Pandey, former Member of Parliament from Ambedkar Nagar. His older brother, Ashish Pandey is a real estate businessman. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in international business management from the European Business School in London in the year 2005.

Politics
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. 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 for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, losing to Sher Bahadur Singh from the Samajwadi Party. 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.

Social work
Pandey is the chairman of the Raghuraji Devi Foundation Trust that works on reforming education and on promoting cultural events for youth. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Awadh Mutineers, a grassroot sports initiative that trains and supports underprivileged children for playing football.