Tandon was a member of
Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) for two terms, from 1978 until 1984 and remained the Leader of the House, of the Council from 1990 to 1996. Subsequently, he remained a member of
Legislative Assembly (MLA) for three terms, 1996–2009, and remained the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly from 2003 to 2007. He had also served as Urban Development minister in the
Uttar Pradesh cabinet under
Mayawati (in the BSP-BJP alliance), and also in the
Kalyan Singh ministry earlier. Tandon was the leader of opposition in the
Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2003 to 2007. On his birthday in April 2004, he was distributing free
saris to poor women when a stampede broke out, killing 21 people. He was cleared of wrongdoing in this matter. 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 enormous electoral spending,
Akhilesh Das of the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) polled third, trailing by 70,000 votes. As a
Governor of Bihar, he was praised for streamlining academic activities of the state universities. On 20 July 2019, he was appointed the 18th Governor of
Madhya Pradesh, replacing
Anandiben Patel. ==Other works==