Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): Former Union Minister and veteran leader Sharad Yadav passed away at the age of 75 at Fortis Hospital in Gurugram on Thursday. The information about his death was shared by his daughter Subhashini Yadav on social media last night. It is being said that the senior leader was running ill for a long time.
Condolence messages by several political leaders followed the news of Yadav’s demise, whose last rites will be conducted at his ancestral village in Narmadapuram (erstwhile Hoshangabad).
Before earning name as a union minister and an important figure in Bihar’s political history, Sharad Yadav started his career as a student leader. He was also the president of Jabalpur Engineering College Alumni Association.
Former Union Minister Sharad Yadav | File
From Babai to Lok Sabha
Sharad Yadav was born on July 1 1947 in Babai village of Hoshangabad. While studying at Jabalpur Engineering College (JEC), he was the President of the Student Union. Inspired by the ideas of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Sharad Yadav, came into politics and took part in many movements. He also went to jail under the controversial Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).
Sharad Yadav became a Lok Sabha member for the first time in 1974 by winning the by-elections from Jabalpur. This was the same period when the JP movement was at its peak. Sharad Yadav was the first candidate fielded by Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Lok Dal with the election symbol of a farmer holding a plough. He was re-elected from the same seat in 1977.
Yadav reached the Parliament for the third time in 1989 from Badaun Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh. From 1991 to 2014, he was a four-time MP from Madhepura seat in Bihar. After this Yadav never turned back from Bihar and rose to such prominence in the state that served as the union minister in V P Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s governments.
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‘Malviya Chowk and Sharad Yadav were synonyms’
Though Sharad Yadav became a prominent figure in Bihar politics, he never forgot his college life and Jabalpur.
The news of Yadav’s demise has caused a lot of pain to his friends whom he would recognize even in huge crowds and call them by their names which were famous during their college days.
Among them, his old friend and advocate Jagdish Gupta said, “Sharad used to call old friends by their same name, which were famous in college during that period. He often used to call everyone at Malviya Chowk and we used to chat there for hours. In other words, Malviya Chowk and Sharad of Jabalpur were synonymous with each other.” Pandit ji and Khattu Sindhi's paan shop at Malviya Chowk also used to be a favourite spot for Yadav and his friends.
Talking about Yadav’s resilience, Mukesh Rathore, who spent a long time with him, said, “Both of his legs were injured in the lathi charge by the police, which affected him his whole life .”
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Sharad Yadav and his gifts for Jabalpur
Yadav played an important role in establishing strong student politics in Madhya Pradesh. Friends who knew him said that Sharad Yadav's style of politics was somewhat different and cool. If he said something, he tried to accomplish it in any situation.
While serving as the Minister of Food and Supplies in the Atal Bihari-led government at the centre, Sharad Yadav, gifted the Central Godown of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to Jabalpur. When Sharad Yadav was the textile minister in the Deve Gowda government, he got the Jabalpur-Gondia broad gauge started with the help of his proximity with the then railway minister George Fernandes.
People of Jabalpur will always remember Yadav for works like starting a direct train from Jabalpur to Delhi, establishment of Railway Zone Office in Jabalpur, flight services, upgradation of Dumna airport and establishment of IIITDM, Jabalpur.
