Socialist stalwart and former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav died Thursday at a hospital in Gurgaon. He was 75. He is survived by his wife, daughter and son.
A statement from the Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurgaon said Yadav was brought to the emergency ward in an unconscious and unresponsive state.
“On examination, he did not have any pulse or recordable blood pressure. He underwent CPR as per ACLS protocols. Despite best efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 10.19 pm,” the hospital said in its statement.
In a condolence message on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Pained by the passing away of Shri Sharad Yadav Ji. In his long years in public life, he distinguished himself as MP and Minister. He was greatly inspired by Dr. Lohia’s ideals. I will always cherish our interactions. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in his condolence message, described Yadav as an “outstanding parliamentarian for decades” who “strengthened the politics of equality”.
A 7-term Lok Sabha and 4-term Rajya Sabha member, Yadav, a former Union Minister, had not been keeping well for some time.
Born on July 1, 1947 at Babai in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh, Yadav was a gold medallist in engineering from the Jabalpur Engineering College.
He soon became active in youth politics, greatly influenced by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.
He participated in a number of mass movements and was detained under MISA during the turbulent 1970s.
Much later, he was among the leaders who played a significant role in the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations.
Bihar was his political home. In fact, he was one of the few who had been instrumental in installing Lalu Prasad as Chief Minister of Bihar in 1990.
Yadav once told The Indian Express how V P Singh, who was then Prime Minister, had almost decided on Ram Sundar Das as CM. Yadav said he convinced the then Deputy PM Choudhary Devi Lal to hold a contest among CM nominees from the Janata Dal.
There was a time when Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar would go to Patna airport to receive Sharad Yadav. There was also a time when Lalu Prasad won and lost the election against Yadav from Madhepura. Nitish Kumar, who had brought in Yadav as JD (U) national president to check George Fernandes, was also responsible for Yadav losing his Rajya Sabha membership towards the end of his political career.
Yadav would often say “Nitish Kumar cannot stay in an alliance for a long time”. He claimed to have introduced Nitish Kumar to socialist leader and former CM Karpoori Thakur.
Yadav was the bridge between Bihar and national politics for a long time, and between the state’s two top leaders. He was also the one who got the Samata Party of George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar to merge with his Janata Dal (U), making it a bigger political identity and eventually a partner of the BJP after the 2005 Bihar Assembly elections.
His entry into national politics too was dramatic. In 1974, the JP movement against the Indira Gandhi government had started spreading, and was taking the Hindi heartland by storm. The Congress MP from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh died suddenly and Jayaprakash Narayan decided to field a young college student as the joint Opposition candidate to take on the then mighty Congress in the bye-elections.
The 27-year-old created history by trouncing the formidable Congress– and humbling Indira. He never looked back thereafter.
Over the next five decades , he emerged as one of the champions of socialist and backward politics who maintained relations with leaders across the political spectrum.
An earthy politician with rustic wit and charm, Yadav, who always preferred to wear dhoti and kurta, was one of those pre-Emergency Janata leaders who rose in politics, championing and practising strident anti-Congressism to carve out a space for themselves in the 1980s and the post-Mandal 1990s.
Having played a role in implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, Yadav emerged as one of the frontline leaders of the Janata Parivar in the 1990s. In fact, the late 1990s saw his then party Janata Dal aligning with the BJP and becoming a constituent of the NDA. He was convenor of the NDA. In the Vajpayee government, he was a Cabinet minister holding the portfolios of Civil Aviation, Labour and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Former union minister Sharad Yadav (Express Illustration) 
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