Ram Sundar Das

Ram Sundar Das Biography

Ram Sundar Das was a prominent politician from the state of Bihar, who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Bihar. He was in office for a brief period of 303 days during 21 April 1979 – 17 February 1980. He represented Janata Party, and preceded Karpoori Thakur as state CM. During his political career, he enjoyed the trust of some of prominent political leaders of 1970s like Chandra Shekhar Singh and Satyendra Narayan Sinha. He was also a parliamentarian who got elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 from Hajipur constituency in Bihar and also 2009, but lost 2014 elections. He died on 6 March 2015 at the age of 94 at Patna due to age related issues.

Ram Sundar Das was born on 9 January 1921 in Gangajal, Saran district, Bihar. Fondly called Chote sahib, he was a leader of masses. Das was a lifelong socialist. He first became a lawmaker in 1968 when he entered the Bihar Legislative Council and remained a member till 1977. Same year he contested Lok Sabha elections for the first time and won it from Sonepur. He replaced Karpoori Thakur as state CM for about 10 months, between April 1979 and February 1980, thus rising to a prominent figure in state politics as well.

He defeated Ram Vilas Paswan in Hajipur (SC) seat in Lok Sabha elections in 2009. Throughout his life time he tried to defend his favourite Hajipur seat. However, he had to surrender the seat to Paswan in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He was the oldest contestant of Lok Sabha elections 2014, when he contested at the age of 93. He was quite active in campaigns and travelled extensively to convince voters.

Published: September 18, 2018

Updated: September 18, 2018