Lucknow: Samajwadi Party has made Mata Prasad Pandey the Leader of Opposition in Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Indrajit Saroj, Ram Achal Rajbhar and Toofani Saroj were also in the race for the Leader of Opposition, but SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has made Mata Prasad Pandey, a Brahmin face from Purvanchal, his successor in the Assembly.
Earlier, Samajwadi Party had called a meeting of its MLAs, in which the MLAs left the responsibility on their national president to choose the Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly. Akhilesh Yadav put the final seal on the name of former Speaker of the Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey.
Mata Prasad Pandey is the current MLA from Itwa seat of Siddharthnagar. He has been the Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Assembly twice. Mata Prasad Pandey will take over the responsibility of Leader of Opposition from Monday i.e. tomorrow. It was being said that Akhilesh Yadav will hand over the responsibility of Leader of Opposition to a face coming from backward community under his PDA formula. However, he has once again entrusted a big responsibility to Mata Prasad Pandey, who comes from Purvanchal. Mata Prasad is considered close to Akhilesh.
