Lalji Tandon

Lalji Tandon (born 12 April 1935) is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), known as a protege of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In May 2009, he was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Lucknow by a margin over 40,000 votes over Rita Bahuguna Joshi of Indian National Congress, the seat was earlier held by former BJP President, Atal Bihari Vajpayee since 1991, for four consecutive terms. Despite an enormous electoral spending, Akhilesh Das of Samajwadi Party (SP) polled third, trailing by 70 thousand votes.

In the family He has wife Krishna Tandon, 3 sons and 4 grandchildren, bigboss contestant kushal Tandon is his grandson.

He has been a member of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) for two terms, 1978–84 and remained the Leader of House, of the Council, 1990–96, subsequently he remained a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (MLA) for three terms, 1996–2009, and remained the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, 2003-07. He had also served as Urban Development minister in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet under Mayawati (in the BSP-BJP combine), and also in the Kalyan Singh ministry earlier.

In April 2004, on the eve of elections, he was distributing free saris to poor women on his birthday, when a stampede broke out, killing 21 people. He was later given a clean chit in this matter.

He was elected to the 15th Lok Shabha in 2009.