3 min readLucknowJun 28, 2026 04:58 PM IST
First published on: Jun 28, 2026 at 04:58 PM IST
As the row over alleged irregularities in donations to the Ram temple gathers political traction in Ayodhya, Samajwadi Party leader Pawan Pandey — also known as Tej Narain Pandey — has emerged as the party’s face attacking the BJP on the issue in the temple town.
After SP president Akhilesh Yadav alleged on June 7 that donations made by devotees at the Ram temple were being misappropriated, Pandey, 46, has led the party’s campaign locally, holding frequent press conferences and accusing the BJP government of failing to act on complaints of alleged theft and financial irregularities.
“This issue of donation theft has reached every household in Ayodhya. People are upset. I am only raising the anomalies before the media and speaking boldly on the matter,” Pandey told The Indian Express.
He said his intervention was not driven by religious politics but by concerns over donations made by devotees. “The government is supposed to take action if there has been any wrongdoing,” he said.
This is not the first time Pandey has targeted the Ram Janmabhoomi establishment. Earlier, he had alleged irregularities in the purchase of land by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
A former student leader at Lucknow University, Pandey was elected vice-president of the university students’ union in 2004-05 on a ticket backed by the SP’s student wing, the Chhatra Sabha. He later entered mainstream politics under the mentorship of his maternal uncle, Jai Shanker Pandey, a founding SP leader in Faizabad and a former Janata Dal MLA from Ayodhya who represented the constituency in 1989 before BJP veteran Lallu Singh’s long winning run began.
Former Ayodhya MLA
Pandey first shot to prominence in the 2012 Assembly elections when he defeated Singh from the Ayodhya Assembly constituency, ending the latter’s five-term winning streak in what was considered a BJP bastion. The victory earned him praise from SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and also a berth in the Akhilesh government as Minister of State for Entertainment Tax. Pandey contested the Ayodhya seat again in 2017 and 2022 but lost both elections to BJP’s Ved Prakash Gupta.
Following the SP’s poor performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Pandey was dropped from the ministry along with three others. However, he returned to the Cabinet in 2015 as Minister of State for Forests, signalling that he had regained Akhilesh’s confidence.
During the bitter feud within the Yadav family ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, then SP state president Shivpal Singh Yadav expelled Pandey from the party, accusing him of assaulting SP MLC Ashu Malik, who was considered close to both Mulayam and Shivpal. Shivpal also wrote to then CM Akhilesh recommending that Pandey be dropped from the Cabinet.
Pandey denied the allegations, calling them part of a conspiracy against him. After Akhilesh took control of the party organisation, he revoked Pandey’s expulsion and fielded him again from Ayodhya, despite Mulayam earlier opposing his candidature.
Despite the electoral setbacks, Pandey remains one of the SP’s most recognisable faces in Ayodhya and has once again been tasked with leading the party’s political offensive in the temple town.