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Who is Pankaj Chaudhary?
Born in 1964 in UP's Gorakhpur, BJP's Pankaj Chaudhary is presently MoS Finance in the NDA govt and a Lok Sabha MP from Maharajganj, UP. He is a popular Kurmi leader across the Maharajganj-Gorakhpur belt. Chaudhary holds a BA degree from the Gorakhpur University.
Political Career
Chaudhary is a seven-time LS MP and on all seven occasions, he won from his stronghold Maharajganj.
He first became an MP in the 1991 General Elections. But it is not that Chaudhary was parachuted into national politics by the BJP. He rose to ranks as prior to being a LS MP, Chaudhary served as a ward councilor of the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation. Later, he was made the deputy mayor of the civic body.
After his win in the 1991 polls, Chaudhary went on to win all LS polls from Maharajganj till date barring the 1999 and 2009 ones.
In 2019, he comprehensively defeated SP candidate and former Maharajganj MP, Akhilesh Singh, by a margin of over 3 lakh votes. However, in 2024, Chaudhary faced a very tough fight from Congress' Virendra Chaudhary as the former's margin got reduced to only 35,000 votes.
Over the years, Chaudhary has been a member of several Parliament's standing committees but it was only in 2021, when BJP high command rewarded him for his loyalty and appointed him as MoS Finance during the Cabinet reshuffle. After the 2024 LS results, Chaudhary was again appointed as MoS Finance.
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