Former union minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Sharad Yadav died aged 75 on January 12, after suffering from health-related ailments.
Yadav’ daughter Subhashini Yadav confirmed his demise in a post on Facebook.
Yadav was a seven-time former Lok Sabha MP, and had been elected thrice to the Rajya Sabha.
Counted amongst the top socialist leaders of the Hindi belt, Yadav had initiated his political career during the anti-Emergency movement of the mid-1970s.
Sharad Yadav held various portfolios in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1999 and 2004. In 2003, Yadav became the president of the Janata Dal United JD(U), a party that included his other former follower, Nitish Kumar. After he was defeated in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar helped him get a Rajya Sabha seat.
In 2009, Sharad Yadav was again elected to the Lok Sabha from Madhepura. But after the JD(U)’s defeat in the 2014 general elections, Yadav’s relations with Nitish Kumar soured.
In the 2017 Bihar assembly elections, when the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar realligned with the BJP, Sharad Yadav refused to follow, for which the JD(U) sought his expulsion from the Rajya Sabha.
Later, Sharad Yadav parted ways with Nitish Kumar and founded his own party, the Loktantarik Janata Dal (LJD) in 2018.
In March 2022, Yadav announced that the LJD will merge with the Rashtriya Janata Dal as part of his efforts to unite various offshoots of the erstwhile Janata Dal. It marked Yadav’s coming together with Lalu Prasad after more than three decades.