Deo Prakash Rai

Deo Prakash Rai (December 1926 – 1981) was an Indian politician. A former Gorkha Brigade soldier, he was the general secretary of the All India Gorkha League and was made a minister in the West Bengal state government in 1967, 1969 and 1971.

Youth Rai was born at Tukvar Tea Estate in Darjeeling in December 1926.

Soldier Rai served in the Gorkha Brigade for three years during the Second World War. He reached the rank of colour sergeant. In 1950, he was arrested in Malaya and deported, having been denounced as a "communist agent" by John Cross, chief instructor of the new Army School of Education (Gurkhas).

In politics and trade unionism Rai was general secretary of the All India Gorkha League. The CPI tried to convince the Gorkha League to support the Gorkhasthan proposal, but Rai categorically opposed it. He was again named as Minister in the 1971 state government, now in charge of Scheduled Castes Tribal Welfare and Tourism.

For a quarter of a century, Rai was the dominant politician in the Darjeeling hills. He received criticism from within his own community, which accused him of having entered into a secret pact with the state government in Calcutta.