61 Facts About Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Prasad was born on 11 June 1948 and is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009.

Lalu Prasad Yadav is the founder and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal a prominent political party in Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav is a former member of Parliament of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Lalu Prasad Yadav entered politics at Patna University as a student leader and, in 1977, was elected as one of the youngest members of the Lok Sabha for the Bharatiya Lok Dal of the Janata Alliance.

Lalu Prasad Yadav became the chief minister of Bihar in 1990.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's party came to power in the 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election in partnership with Nitish Kumar of JD.

Lalu Prasad Yadav started his education at a local middle school before moving to Patna with his older brother, Mukund Rai, who enrolled him in an upper primary school in Sheikhpura.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's father passed away after he completed his matriculation in 1965 from Miller High School in Patna, where he was a passionate footballer.

Lalu Prasad Yadav changed its name to Devipad Choudhary Shaheed Smarak Ucchya Madhyamik Vidyalaya in honour of Devipad Choudhary, who was a freedom fighter and student of the same school.

Lalu Prasad Yadav turned down Patna University's Honorary Doctorate in 2004.

Lalu Prasad asserts that he belongs to the Yadav caste; however, Bihar's deputy chief minister, Samrat Choudhary, Jitan Ram Manjhi, among others, have alleged that his actual caste is Gaderia.

Lalu Prasad Yadav married Rabri Devi on 1 June 1973, in an arranged marriage, and they went on to have seven daughters and two sons.

In 1970, Lalu Prasad Yadav entered student politics as the general secretary of the Patna University Students' Union, became its president in 1973, joined Jai Prakash Narayan' Bihar Movement in 1974 where he became sufficiently close to Janata Party leaders to become the Janta alliance's winning candidate in the 1977 Lok Sabha election from Chapra at the age of 29.

Lalu Prasad Yadav quit the Janata party to join the splinter group, Janta Party-S, led by Raj Narain, only to lose the re-election in 1980.

Lalu Prasad Yadav managed to win the Bihar Legislative Assembly election later in 1980, and again in 1985 to become the leader of opposition in Bihar assembly in 1989.

Lalu Prasad Yadav became popular among the young voters of Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was victorious in an internal poll of Janta Dal MLA's and became the chief minister.

On 23 September 1990, Lalu arrested L K Advani at Samastipur during the latter's Ram Rath Yatra to Ayodhya.

In 1993, Lalu adopted a pro-English policy and pushed for the re-introduction of English as a language in school curriculum, contrary to the angrezi hatao policy of then Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Consequently, Lalu Prasad Yadav broke away from Janta Dal and formed a new political party, Rashtriya Janata Dal.

In 1998 general for the 12th Lok Sabha, Lalu won from Madhepura, but lost in 1999 general election to Sharad Yadav.

In 2002, Lalu Prasad Yadav was elected to the Rajya Sabha, where he stayed until 2004.

In May 2004, Lalu contested the general election from Chhapra and Madhepura against Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sharad Yadav respectively and won both seats with a good margin.

Lalu Prasad Yadav became the railway minister in the 2004 UPA Government.

Lalu Prasad Yadav introduced cushion seats in all unreserved compartments.

Lalu Prasad Yadav received invitations from eight Ivy League schools for lectures, and addressed over a hundred students from Harvard, Wharton and others in Hindi.

In May 2012, Lalu Prasad envisaged Hamid Ansari, previous Vice President, as a presidential candidate.

In May 2013, Lalu Prasad Yadav tried to rejuvenate the party and fuel the party workers in his Parivartan Rally.

Lalu Prasad Yadav has been elected 4 times as MLA and 5 times as Lok Sabha MP.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was criticised for neglecting development, but a study conducted during his reign, among downtrodden Musahars revealed that despite the construction of houses for them not being concluded at required pace, they are obliged to choose him as their leader as he returned them their ijjat and for the first time they are allowed to vote as per their own wishes.

Lalu Prasad Yadav even continued to reside in his quarter of one room after getting elected as Chief Minister, though later he moved to official residence of the CM for administrative convenience.

Lalu Prasad Yadav however continued to rule Bihar due to massive support from "Backward Castes" as well as his emphasis on "honour" which he considered more important than the development.

Lalu Prasad Yadav continuously lambasted the oppressors on the behalf of the oppressed and led to their emergence as the pivot of political power.

The advent of Lalu Prasad Yadav led to a drastic change in the economic profile of the state, followed by the diversification of the occupation of the 'Backwards' and increase in land owned by them.

Lalu Prasad Yadav instilled a sense of confidence among Muslims by stopping Lal Krishna Advani's controversial "Rath yatra".

Lalu Prasad Yadav took part in the public festivals and popularised his famous Kurta far Holi.

Since the strategy of transfer of unwanted bureaucrats has a limit, Lalu Prasad Yadav's government was adamant in use of quota to fill these posts with the officials from the subaltern background.

Lalu Prasad is said to have patronised; Pappu Yadav, operating out of Purnea and Madhepura districts; Vinod Yadav, operating out of Bhagalpur district; Surendra Yadav, operating out of Gaya district; Mohammad Shahabuddin, operating out of Siwan district; Makhi Paswan, operating out of Khagaria district; and Mohammed Suleiman, operating out of Kishanganj district.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's rule led to breaking away of patron-client relationship in elections between the upper castes and the Dalits.

The rise of Lalu Prasad provided an opportunity to unite all these social groups and the Naxalite groups, which had many OBCs in the leadership positions, supported the political party led by Lalu.

In contrast to Kumar, Lalu Prasad has been described by Sinha, and was perceived as a staunch anti-upper caste leader.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's politics is described as being against the radical Hindu Nationalism promoted by political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party.

Lalu Prasad Yadav employed political symbolism to a large extent in order to confront the politics based on militant religious ideology.

Lalu Prasad Yadav asked his rural supporters to join him in Gandhi Maidan with a Lathi against the Trishuls of VHP.

Lalu Prasad Yadav said that, this implement of the rural poor, which was considered as the weapon of weak, will destroy the Trishul of hatred.

Lalu Prasad Yadav's rally were contact point between him and his rural supporters.

In contrast to elections being based on money power, and the phenomenon of most of the candidates getting elected to houses of legislature in Bihar belonging to high income groups, RJD under Lalu Prasad has raised grassroot political workers from poor background to important positions in the politics of state.

In 2022, Lalu Prasad Yadav led election of a Dalit woman, Munni Rajak from Dhobi caste to the seventy-five membered Bihar Legislative Council.

Lalu Prasad has been convicted and jailed in two scams.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was an accused party and later convicted in the first Fodder Scam case of 1996.

Lalu Prasad Yadav has been an accused in many of the 53-odd cases filed.

Lalu Prasad Yadav has been remanded to custody on multiple occasions because of the number of cases.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was first sent to "Judicial remand" on 30 July 1997, for 134 days.

On 26 November 2001, Lalu Prasad Yadav was again remanded, in a case related to the fodder scam.

Lalu Prasad Yadav accused the NDA of creating a conspiracy against him.

Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, Lalu Prasad Yadav was arrested and taken to Birsa Munda Central Jail, located at Ranchi.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was released on bail from Birsa Munda Central Jail, after he completed the bail formalities in a Special CBI court,.

Lalu Prasad was convicted in the controversial Fodder Scam, and was serving a term until 17 April 2021, when he was granted bail from the Jharkhand High Court in the corruption scandal.

Lalu Prasad is one of the first noted politicians to lose parliamentary seat on being arrested in fodder scam as per Supreme Court decision banning convicted legislators to hold their posts.

Lalu's rule witnessed Yadav caste becoming assertive in the rural and urban landscape of Bihar, leading his opponents to coin the slogan of "Yadavisation" of Bihar's polity and administration.

Lalu Prasad has written his autobiography named Gopalganj to Raisina Road.