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File:LaluPrasadMemberofLokSabha.jpg
Laloo Yadav

Laloo Prasad Yadav (Devanagari:लालू पृसाद य़ादव)(officially spelt Lalu Prasad) (born 1947-06-11) is the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal political party of India. He is also a former Chief Minister of the Indian state of Bihar, and is the husband of Bihar's recent Chief Minister, Rabri Devi. In 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha with his party emerging as a key ally of the Congress. As of 2005, he is the Minister for Railways in the Manmohan Singh government. He is one of the most parodied politicians from India. Most of the parodies mimic his rustic dialect (of Hindi) and his typical Bihari (Bhojpuri) accent and dialect.

Personal life

Laloo was born to Late Kundan Rai at Phulwaria, Distt. Gopalganj (Bihar). He married Rabri Devi in 1973 and has two sons and seven daughters. He is an arts graduate.

Political Career

Laloo is one of India's most famous politicians and is a formidable force in Indian state of Bihar, which his Rashtriya Janata Dal has governed for the past 15 years.

Positions Held

  • 1977 Elected to 6th Lok Sabha
  • 1980-1989 Member, Legislative Assembly (two terms) of Bihar.
  • 1989 Leader of Opposition, Bihar Legislative Assembly, Chairman, Pustakalaya Committee, Convenor, Committee on Public Undertakings, Re-elected to 9th Lok Sabha (2nd term)
  • 1990-1995 Member, Bihar Legislative Council
  • 1990-1997 Chief Minister, Bihar
  • 1995-1998 Member, Bihar Legislative Assembly
  • 1998 Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha (3rd term)
  • 1998-1999 Member, General Purposes Committee, Committee on Home Affairs and its Sub-Committee on Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
  • 2004 Re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha (4th term).Appointed as Cabinet Minister looking after the Ministry of Railways.
Preceded by:

Dr Jagannath Mishra

Chief Ministers of Bihar Succeeded by:

Smt Rabri Devi

Career Highlights

Laloo Yadav who ordered the arrest of L K Advani during the rath yatra on october 23 1990 at Samastipur.

In 1996 police unearthed a big corruption scandal (Animal Husbandry Scam/Fodder scam) in Bihar (going back into the previous Congress government) which allegedly involved him and the state's leading bureaucrats and politicians. His appeal is based on the mass mobilisation of the lower caste Hindu and Muslim votes, and is regarded as the champion of social justice . The fodder scam forced him to resign as chief minister and his wife, Rabri Devi, became his successor.

He formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1997, after breaking away from the Janata Dal.

Railway minister in UPA Government

In August, 2005, just before the assembly polls in Bihar, Lalu (as the Railway Minister in UPA Government) promised model railway stations, gauge conversion works and employment in Railways. Lalus's list of railway stations to be developed as "model stations" included 7 stations from Bihar and only 2 from the rest of India. The seven stations in Bihar included Madhepura, Darbhanga, Patna, Kishenganj, Motihari, Araria and another station. Lalu also "found" 80,000 old C and D grade vacancies in the Railways to lure the voters. The vacancies had existed for over half a decade and Nitish Kumar (his bete noire and his preceder in the Railway Ministry) had also referred them to lure voters during earlier parliamentary elections. However, Nitish Kumar didn't last as Railway Minister for long, as National Democratic Alliance failed to return to power. Apart from this, Lalu cut the general and second class fare by one rupee. He also made annouceed that E-ticketing has been implemented. He also annouced plans for open ticketing and a new scheme on upgradation of lower class passengers to a higher class automatically. On August 14, 2005, Railways' advertisements appeared in newspapers like Times of India (Hum laaye hain toofaan se rail ko nikaal ke). The advertisement claimed that Lalu was "A visionary who scripted the financial turnaround of Indian Railways". The ad gave a comparision of Railways's financial situation in 2001 and 2005 and claimed that Indian Railways, which was a loss-making entity in 2001, had turned into a profit-making entity. However, on the same day, Mumbai Mirror reported: "...A supreme irony is while Lalu looks for more avenues to milk railways in the run up to the Bihar polls, his department has registered losses on parcel running into around Rs. 700 crore."

Political Skills, Deficiencies, And Future Potential

The caste system on the Indian subcontinent has been called the oldest social hierarchy in the world. Laloo Yadav, like his fellow casteman Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, managed to turn things upside down in the caste equation by forging what he calls a Muslim-Yadav alliance, with the rest of the backward castes being "boggies" to the "MY" train. His alliance has been enduring, his message of social justice loud.

"Swarg nahin diya, lekin swar to diya." (I did not give them paradise, but I did give them voice.) That quote from him summarizes his achievements and failures. Whereas his theme of social justice has been for real, he has not been able to do a whole lot to alleviate the poverty in Bihar. He did not create the poverty, but he did not much alleviate it either. But his track record is not as bad as his critics claim. The World Bank actually lauded his party for its work in the 1990s on the economic front.

Even on social justice, he has his fellow Bihari Ram Vilas Paswan trying to forge an alternate Dalit-Muslim alliance, so far with little success.

Already Laloo is the second most powerful person in the Union cabinet. Will he ever become Prime Minister? That is highly unlikely, but not improbable. A non-BJP, non-Congress third front government in which all members are small, and his RJD is one of the biggest members might herald such a possibility, but that can not be seen on the immediate horizon. His party has little presence outside of Bihar.

For all his histrionics and colorful one-liners - he is supposedly more famous worldwide than Bill Clinton - Laloo remains a Bihar strongman. His base at the centre is also derived solely from Bihar.

But so far he has shown uncanny political skills. He is smart and rather well educated, contrary to his buffoon image.

Laloo Yadav Images

External links

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