Sharad Yadav (1 July 1947 – 12 January 2023) was an Indian politician from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times[1] and to the Rajya Sabha four times from JD(U).[2] He was the first national president of Janata Dal (United), serving from its formation in 2003 until 2016.[3] He was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha in 2017 and removed from party leadership positions for engaging in anti-party activities.[4][5]
Yadav's involvement with politics started from 1970 onwards when he became the president of Jabalpur University Student Association.[8] He was active in the Bihar Student Movement and was greatly influenced by the socialist ideas of Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia.[7] He was jailed by the Jabalpur police in 1972 and 1975 due to his involvement with the student movement.[8][7]
Member of Parliament
Yadav was elected to the Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, seven times[1] across constituencies in three different states – four times from Madhepura[9] in Bihar, twice from Jabalpur[8] in Madhya Pradesh and once from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, which is a rare feat.[10]
Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time at the age of 27 from Jabalpur in 1974 in a by-poll after the death of incumbent Seth Govind Das.[8][11] At a time when the JP Movement was at its peak, he won the by-poll for Bharatiya Lok Dal while still in jail.[8] In the 1977 general election, he was re-elected from the same constituency under the newly formed Janata Party.[7] He became the President of Yuva Lok Dal in 1978.[12] When the Janata Party split in 1979, he sided with Charan Singh's faction.[13]
When Rajiv Gandhi first entered the Lok Sabha by winning a by-poll from Amethi in 1981, Sharad Yadav was the losing candidate for Lok Dal.[14] He contested the 1984 general election as a Lok Dal candidate from Badaun, which he lost against Saleem Iqbal Shervani of Congress.[15] He was elected as a Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1986.[16][17]
He contested the 1999 general election from Madhepura against Lalu Prasad again and won this time.[21] Lalu's popularity had declined due to his implication with the Fodder Scam and the contest was eagerly watched for what its outcome would say of the electoral preferences of Yadav community.[19] The election was won by the BJP led National Democratic Alliance. The Janata Dal faction led by J H Patel lent support for BJP, a move which was opposed by H. D. Deve Gowda, who wanted Janata Dal to be equidistant from both BJP and Congress.[23] Deve Gowda split from Janata Dal to form Janata Dal (Secular); the remainder of the party led by Sharad Yadav would come to be called as Janata Dal (United).[24][23] Yadav's faction merged with Lok Shakti and Samata Party to officially become Janata Dal (United) in 2003.[23] Yadav became the first president of JDU and remained in the position till 2016.[3]
In the Vajpayee led government, Yadav got a cabinet seat as Minister of Civil Aviation,[25] a position which be held from 13 October 1999 – 1 September 2001.[1] His performance as Aviation minister was criticised for failure to improve the aviation sector of India[26] and was once quoted saying "In this country where crores of people have no other mode of transport but walking, concern for aviation is very elitist."[27] His portfolio was changed from Aviation to the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the September 2001 cabinet reshuffle.[28] In the July 2002 cabinet reshuffle, he was shifted to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.[29]
In the 2004 general election, he contested the Madhepura seat in Bihar against Lalu Prasad. Lalu contested this election from two seats, Madhepura and Chhapra, and won both.[30] Lalu Prasad later gave up the Madhepura seat[31] and the ensuing bypoll to fill the vacancy was won by RJD's Pappu Yadav.[32] In the 2009 general election, Sharad Yadav won the Madhepura seat by a comfortable margin of 175,000 votes against RJD's Ravindra Charan Yadav.[21] He failed to retain the seat in the 2014 general election and lost to RJD's Pappu Yadav.[33][21] Having been removed from JDU in 2017 due to anti-party activities,[5] he contested in the 2019 general election from Madhepura with RJD ticket. He lost to JDU's Dinesh Yadav.[34]
Sharad Yadav won the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat a total of four times; in 1991, 1996,[35] 1999 and 2009.[33] However he was also defeated just as many times from there - twice by Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1998 and 2004, by Pappu Yadav in 2014,[33] and by Dinesh Yadav in 2019.[34]
In 2017, he gave a speech comparing votes to daughter's honour and suggesting to prefer the former.[36] He was one of the accused in the hawala scandal; however, the charges were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.[37]
A merger with Bahujan Mukti Party (founded on 6 December 2012) was proposed but was called off.[44]
Personal life
He married Rekha on 15 February 1989, with whom he has a son and a daughter.[45] His daughter Subhashini Raja Rao joined Indian National Congress just before 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election and announced her plans to contest from Bihariganj seat.[46] She contested the seat as a candidate of RJD and lost.[47] Sharad Yadav's son Shantanu Bundela is a post graduate from University of London.[48]
Yadav died on 12 January 2023 in Gurugram, aged 75.[49][50][51] Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Yadav and said that he did works for the welfare of common people.[52] Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar expressed condolences over the death and announced one day of state mourning.[9] He was cremated with full state honours on 14 January in his ancestral village of Ankhmau in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district.[10]
Member, Joint Committee on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015
^ abcMenon, Paravathi (10 April 2004). "Janata Parivar's home base". Frontline. Vol. 21, no. 8. Bangalore. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
^"Committee on Ethics. Ninth Report"(PDF). rajyasabha.nic.in. NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Secretariat. 18 February 2009. p. 2. Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.