Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (May 2019 – Present): Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey
Date of Birth: He was born on October 15, 1957.
Place of Birth: He was born at Pakhanpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
Parents: His mother is Chandrawati Pandey and his father is Sudhakar Pandey. He was born in a family of Brahmins.
Spouse: He is married to Pratima Pandey. They have a daughter.
Political Party: He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Education: He did his MA (Master of Arts) in journalism from the Banaras Hindu University. He also completed his PhD in Hindi from over there.
Career: He is an agriculturalist. His political journey started in 1973 when he was elected to the post of the President of the students’ union of the CM Anglo Bengali College, a boys’ school in Varanasi (then known as Banaras).
In 1978, Pandey became the General Secretary of the students’ union at the Banaras Hindu University. During the Emergency, he spent 5 months in prison. It was in 1978 that he joined Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He also participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement. At that time, the UP state government under Mulayam Singh Yadav booked him under the National Security Act. In 1991, he was elected to the legislative assembly of UP. This was his first major achievement from a political perspective. It was in 1996 that he was elected again to the assembly. This time around, Kalyan Singh became the Chief Minister (CM) of UP.
Political Milestones: At this time, Pandey served as the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development. He was handed this portfolio in 1997. From 1998 to 2000, he also served as the Minister of State for Planning on independent charge. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the Minister of State, Panchayati Raj. Before the general elections of 2014, BJP announced that he would be contesting from the Chandauli constituency in the Purvanchal area of UP. In this election, his closest rival was Anil Maurya from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He was able to defeat him by a margin of almost 150,000 votes.
After this, Pandey became a member of the Standing Committee on Rural Development. He was also a member of the Consultative Committee for the Union Ministry of Steel and Mines. His first chance at being a Union minister came in 2016 when PM Narendra Modi instituted a major cabinet reshuffle. On July 5, 2016, he was sworn in as the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development. On August 31, 2017 Satyapal Singh replaced him. After this he became the President of the UP unit of BJP and took over from Keshav Prasad Maurya.
From May 26, 2014, to August 31, 2017, he served as a Minister of State for Human Resource Development.
Pandey also served as the President of the UP unit of BJP from August 31, 2017 to July 16, 2019. From May 16, 2014 he has been the incumbent Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Chandauli constituency. On May 31, 2019 he was appointed the Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Related Links:
Minister of Law and Justice: Ravi Shankar Prasad
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare: Narendra Singh Tomar
