RIP Sharad Yadav: Sharad Yadav was a renowned socialist leader who rose to prominence after anti-Congress platform of the 1970s and remained a key opposition presence for decades as he moved through Lok Dal and Janata Party off shoots before his health began deteriorating.
Sharad Yadav died Thursday in a hospital in Gurgaon. He served seven terms in the Lok Sabha and four terms in the Rajya Sabha. Yadav, who was born in the Madhya Pradesh district of Hoshangabad in 1947, was a gold medalist in engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College before becoming active in youth politics.
Sharad Yadav dies at 75
The veteran leader passed away on Thursday at a private hospital in Gurugram after collapsing at his Chhatarpur residence in Delhi. For a long time, the veteran socialist leader had suffered from kidney problems and required dialysis on a regular basis.
What inspired his political career
When Sharad Yadav was a young student leader, his victory in a Lok Sabha bypoll from Jabalpur as the opposition candidate against the Congress in 1974 energised the party’s political fight against then-prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Emergency was quickly declared in 1975, and he won again in 1977, establishing his credentials as one of several leaders to emerge from the anti-Emergency movement, an image that served him well for several decades as he remained an MP for nearly five decades.
In the late 1990s, Sharad Yadav was a minister in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 1989, he was a minister in the V P Singh government, and he supported Lalu Prasad Yadav. Both were soon to clash as the Bihar leader dominated state politics, overshadowing others and ensuring that his writ ran.
Relied on bigwigs for prominence
Sharad Yadav, never a leader with a large base of his own, relied on state bigwigs like Lalu and Nitish to enter Parliament, but he benefited from the aura and political weight that made him a strong presence at the high table of national politics in Delhi.
He was the convener of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance before being forced to resign when Mr Kumar severed ties with the saffron party in 2013.
He played a key role in Mr Kumar’s alliance with archrival Lalu Prasad Yadav, with whom he worked to demolish the BJP in the Bihar assembly elections in 2015.
Ironically, it was Nitish Kumar’s decision to rejoin the BJP in 2017 that broke his patience with him.
Also read: Sharad Yadav’s demise: PM Modi says ‘pained’ by his passing away; Condolences pour in
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