RS polls: ‘Betrayal’ of trusted Akhilesh aide, SP Brahmin face Manoj Pandey

Seen as a Brahmin face of the party, Pandey joined the SP’s youth wing in the late 1990s and rose up the ranks to emerge as one of the most trusted aides of party chief Akhilesh Yadav. He was preferred over other senior leaders as the party’s chief whip in the Assembly.

A three-time MLA from Unchahar Assembly segment, which falls under the Raebareli parliamentary seat, the 55-year-old had briefly joined the BJP in the early 2000s. However, he returned to the SP fold ahead of the 2007 Assembly elections, and was back in its good books.

After the Akhilesh-led SP government came to power in 2012, he was made a minister of state for agriculture two years later. He was subsequently elevated to Cabinet rank.

SP insiders said Pandey’s exit will also hurt the party as he was seen as one of the reasons for senior leader and OBC face Swami Prasad Maurya quitting the party. Sources said Akhilesh had overlooked repeated complaints against Pandey by Maurya, who accused the party of betraying its avowed commitment towards backwards while exiting the party.

The rivalry between them is old. In the 2012 Assembly polls, when he won Unchahar for the first time, Pandey had defeated Maurya’s son and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Utkrisht.

In 2017, when the SP and Congress contested the Assembly polls in alliance, Pandey had insisted on contesting the from Unchahar, despite the seat being promised to the Congress. He retained the seat in the 2022 polls, defeating Amarpal Maurya of the BJP by about 7,000 votes.

Pandey’s exit from the SP may also spell trouble for the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Raebareli, a Congress bastion, is one of the 17 seats in the state that the party will contest as part of the seat-sharing agreement with the SP. The grand old party is banking on the Akhilesh-led outfit to ensure smooth sailing there, especially as former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will not be contesting from the seat this time.

Though Pandey is yet to resign from the primary membership of the SP and has not indicated his future course of action, sources said the BJP may consider fielding him from Raebareli, instead of Dinesh Pratap Singh, as speculated earlier.

After casting his vote, Pandey said allegations of “horse trading” are common but refused to elaborate.

Reacting to Pandey’s resignation and MLAs’ cross-voting, Akhilesh said those who did not have the courage to stand against the government have left and also assured action against them.

Senior BJP leader and minister Daya Shankar Singh said Pandey had always been “a supporter of Sanatan Dharma” and was “hurt about not being able to visit Ayodhya”, alluding to the Congress leadership’s decision to stay away from the Ram Temple consecration ceremony.