Sharad Yadav

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 and to the Rajya Sabha four times for Janata Dal (United). He was the first national president of JD(U), serving from its formation in 2003 until 2016. He was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha in 2017 and removed from party leadership positions for engaging in anti-party activities.

Early life and education Yadav was born on 1 July 1947 to Nand Kishore Yadav and Sumitra Yadav in Babai village in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh. He also earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College, where he was a gold medalist.

Political career Yadav's involvement with politics started in 1970 when he became the president of Jabalpur University Student Association. He was active in the Bihar Student Movement and was greatly influenced by the socialist ideas of Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. in Bihar, twice from Jabalpur

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. At a time when the JP Movement was at its peak, he won the by-poll for Bharatiya Lok Dal while still in jail. When the Janata Party split in 1979, he sided with Charan Singh's faction.

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. He contested the 1984 general election as a Lok Dal candidate from Badaun, which he lost against Saleem Iqbal Shervani of Congress. He was elected as a Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1986.

Yadav won the Badaun seat in the 1989 general election under the Janata Dal party, with INC's Ram Naresh Yadav being the runner-up. In an election dominated by the Bofors scandal, INC failed to form the government despite being the single largest party. Yadav emerged as one of the major players of the left-wing opposition coalition supporting V. P. Singh as the prime ministerial candidate, with external support from BJP. He was one of the most powerful members of the cabinet and exerted pressure on V. P. Singh to implement the Mandal Commission report on reservations for OBCs in 1990, which led to widespread protests and brought Caste politics to the forefront. He retained the seat in 1996 general election defeating the Samata Party's Anand Mandal.

He contested the 1999 general election from Madhepura against Lalu Prasad again and won this time. 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). a position which be held from 13 October 1999 – 1 September 2001. 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." His portfolio was changed from Aviation to the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the September 2001 cabinet reshuffle. In the July 2002 cabinet reshuffle, he was shifted to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

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. Lalu Prasad later gave up the Madhepura seat and the ensuing bypoll to fill the vacancy was won by RJD's Pappu Yadav. 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.

Sharad Yadav won the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat a total of four times; in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2009. He was one of the accused in the hawala scandal; however, the charges were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.

Loktantrik Janata Dal Yadav founded the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) in May 2018, after disassociating himself from the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) in the wake of its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar.

A merger with Bahujan Mukti Party (founded on 6 December 2012) was proposed but was called off.

Personal life He married Rekha on 15 February 1989, with whom he has a son and a daughter. 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. She contested the seat as a candidate of RJD and lost. Sharad Yadav's son Shantanu Bundela is a post graduate from University of London.

Yadav died on 12 January 2023 in Gurgaon, aged 75. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Yadav and said that he did works for the welfare of common people. Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar expressed condolences over the death and announced one day of state mourning. 1991–1996 Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha (4th term) from Madhepura constituency and Member, Public Accounts Committee

1999–2004 Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha (6th term) from Madhepura constituency

2009–2014 Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (7th term) from Madhepura constituency

31 August 2009 – 2010 Chairman, Committee on Urban Development

March 2011 – October 2013 Member, JPC to examine matter relating to Allocation and pricing of Telecom Licences and Spectrum

13 June 2014 – 7 July 2016 Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (3rd term)

December 2014 – July 2016 Chairman, Committee on Provision of Computer to Members of Rajya Sabha

April 2015 – July 2016 Member, JPC on Security in Parliament House Complex

May 2015 – July 2016 Member, Joint Committee on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015

8 July 2016 – 4 December 2017 Re-elected to Rajya Sabha (fourth term)

November – December 2017 Member, Joint Committee on Offices of Profit Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

April – July 2017 Member, Select Committee of Rajya Sabha on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017