Lalu Prasad Yadav
Lalu Prasad Yadav (Hindi: लालू प्रसाद यादव, born June 11, 1947 in Gopalganj, Bihar ) is an Indian politician. From 2004 to 2009 he was Minister of Railways of the ruling UPA. He is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha for the electoral district of Saran in Bihar. Yadav is one of the most controversial and colorful personalities in the already colorful political landscape of India.
Career and political activities
Yadav was born in Bihar, the son of poor Hindu peasants as the second of six children. He studied at the Patna University, where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Laws of a Masters in Political Science. In 1973 he married Rabri Devi, with whom he has two sons and seven daughters. During his studies in Patna, he became politically active, first as President of the Patna University Students' Union ( pusu ), which was associated to the movement of Jayaprakash Narayan ( " Bihar Movement" ). The movement was directed against price increases, politicians against corruption and unemployment and aimed primarily against the ruling Congress Party under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1977 he was a delegate for the Janata Party in the total Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha elected, but lost his seat in the election in 1980. 1980 to 1989 he was a Member of Parliament from Bihar. In 1989, he again won a seat in parliament in the election to the Lok Sabha in 1989. At this time, Yadav became increasingly political influence in Bihar at the expense of previously dominant Congress Party. His followers were recruited mainly from the lower castes and from Muslims.
Chief Minister of Bihar
Yadav was twice Chief Minister of Bihar, for the first of 10 March 1990 to April 3, 1995 and the second 4 April 1995 to 25 July 1997. In 1997 he had as a result of extensive corruption scandal, as the Fodder Scam (English " feed dizziness " ) has been known to resign. 1996 had been detected, which extended to a vast corruption scandal in the potentially numerous senior politicians and a network were involved in dubious business people by the police in Bihar machinations. The affair involved the misappropriation of 267 million U.S. dollars (equivalent to about $ 320 million in purchasing power in 2014 ). The funds were in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, mainly for animal feed, are to be issued, and the like, but this was not happening. Instead, they were seeps into dark channels. Yadav therefore slid under pressure from the opposition, which demanded his resignation, but also his own party. Then he gathered his followers and founded with them in 1997 a new party, Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD ). With this political support, he managed, his wife Rabri Devi, although this largely was illiterate and had no political experience, to be elected to the Chief Minister of Bihar. His opponents accused him of why, despite his resignation continues to draw in Bihar as it were on remote control the political threads, which was denied by him and his wife.
Minister of Railways
In the 2004 election, the RJD, which had entered into an electoral alliance with the Congress party won 21 parliamentary seats in Bihar and Yadav was in the coalition government subsequently formed under the leadership of the Congress Party Minister of Railways. During his four-year tenure, he managed to turn the loss-making state-owned enterprise into a profitable venture.
Condemnation
After long-serving processes Yadav was in 2013 by an Indian court for the Fodder scam to pay a fine of 2.5 million rupees ( about 30,000 euros ) and to a prison term of five years sentenced. He was one of 45 high government officials and politicians who have been convicted. Only 2 ½ months after the conviction, he was, however, released in December 2013 on bail from prison.
Because of his involvement in corruption scandals Yadav is highly controversial in the Indian public. Despite the scandals he continues to enjoy considerable popularity especially among the lower castes in Bihar.