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This is an archive article published on September 18, 2017
Voice of Seemanchal Mohammed Taslimuddin dies at 74
Taslimuddin had once said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was “not PM material”. On Sunday, Nitish said Taslimudin was “a famous social worker and politician”.
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Mohammed Taslimuddin (1943-2017)
Mohammed Taslimuddin, the RJD MP from Araria who was known as the strongest leader from Bihar’s Seemanchal region, died in Chennai on Sunday. Taslimuddin, 74, is survived by three sons and two daughters. He had gone to Chennai to attend a meeting of a parliamentary committee. He was admitted to a hospital there with breathing distress on August 24. Taslimuddin had once said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was “not PM material”. On Sunday, Nitish said Taslimudin was “a famous social worker and politician”.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said his death was a “big loss to the party. His death has left a great vacuum in Seemanchal politics. He had been with us through thick and thin.” Taslimuddin, who was the MP from Araria, had long been the voice of Seemanchal — a region comprising the parliamentary segments of Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar.
Even in times of the best show by the NDA in the 2014 polls when it won 31 of 40 Bihar seats, Taslimuddin won Araria to add to the RJD’s tally of four seats. Nitish, whose Janata Dal (United) Taslimuddin had joined for some time, spoke to the deceased leader’s son Sarfaraz Alam, JD (U) MLA from Jokihat (Araria), to offer his condolences.
Taslimuddin was born in a farmer’s family in January 1943 in the Sisauna village of Araria. He was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1969 as a Congress nominee. After the 1969 victory, there was a long electoral lull for Taslimuddin. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1989 as a Janta Dal candidate from Purnea and subsequently in 1996,1998, 2004 and 2014. He contested the 1991 Lok Sabha election unsuccessfully from Kishanganj. He won from the Jokihaat seat as a Samajwadi Party candidate in 1995. But he again tried his luck in 1996 Lok Sabha seat as Janta Dal nominee from Kishanganj and won.
He became Union minister of state for home affairs in 1996 in the HD Deve Gowda government. Though there was a mid-term poll in 1998, his stock kept rising as he defeated the BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain from Kishanganj in 1998. But in 1999 Hussain beat Taslimuddin in Kishanganj but again lost the seat to Taslimuddin. Hussain put an end to this contest by moving to the Bhagalpur seat.
Taslimuddin suffered a setback after he lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Araria. He fell out with Lalu Prasad and joined the JD(U) in 2010. After a year, he was back to RJD and contested 2014 polls successfully.
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