Shailendra Yadav Lalai

Shailendra Yadav Lalai is an Indian politician and former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Shahganj constituency in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. He was elected as a member of Legislative Assembly, Uttar Pradesh consecutively for the fourth time. He was the Minister of State for Energy and Planning in the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) government led by the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Early life and education Shailendra Yadav 'Lalai', who has earned the reputation of an effective, disciplined and humanitarian leader, was born on 1 July 1965 in the Pakhanpur village of Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh. He shares his birthday with the Samajwadi Party's chief and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav. The father of Shailendra Yadav Lalai was a farmer and a respected figure in the area because of his erudition and gentle behaviour. A graduate of Gorakhpur University, Lalai was very much fascinated by social service and politics since his early college days. It was the time when Mayawati was rising on the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh as a brand new voice of backwards and dalits. Lalai switched to BSP. In the general assembly elections held in 2002, Mayawati fielded him from the same Khutahan assembly constituency where he lost the battle in 1993 but he won the election this time by defeating the sitting MLA, Umakant Yadav. In latest Uttar Pradesh Assembly election held in 2017, he was Samajwadi Party candidate and defeated his close contestant Rana Ajit Pratap Singh of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party by a margin of more than nine thousand votes.

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