Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Prasad Yadav Biography

Lalu Prasad Yadav is an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997. He is elected to the 15^th Lok Sabha from Saran constituency in Bihar. He was the Minister of Railways from 2004 to 2009 in the United Progressive Alliance government. He is the President of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party. As he was alleged to have involved in the Fodder Scam, he resigned his post and his wife Rabri Devi was made into Chief Minister. She served as Chief Minister of Bihar from 1997 to 2005.

He was born on 11^th June 1947 in Phulwaria in Gopalganj at Bihar.  His parents are Kalu Prasad Yadav and Marchi Devi. He studied at Bihar Military Police No 5 Middle School. He got the Bachelor’s degree in Law and Masters Degree in Political Science from B. N. College, Patna. He married Rabri Devi on 1^st June 1973 and has two sons and seven daughters. He entered politics when he was a student at Patna University and was elected as the member of the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1977 as a candidate of Janata party. He became the youngest member of the parliament at the age of 29.

When he entered politics he was the General Secretary of the Patna University Students’ Union in 1970. He was supported by the then Chief Minister of Bihar, Satyendra Narayan Sinha. He became a formidable force in Bihar within a decade of his political career. He led the National Front coalition in Bihar successfully and when the party came to power in 1990, he was made as the Chief Minister of Bihar.

He formed Rashtriya Janata Dal party in 1997. His party lost in the November 2005 elections and BJP came to power. He was elected to 14^th Lok Sabha from Chhapra and Madhepura seats. He was charged in many corruption cases and the famous one was Fodder Scam. He made many changes in the Indian Railways and very efficiently run the railways department.  The generally loss making railways department became highly profitable under his stewardship even after investing in the infrastructure facilities. In the 4 years under his leadership, it made a cumulative total profit of Rs. 25,000 crores (US $5.2 billion).

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Updated: July 22, 2011