Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Prasad Yadav, sometimes spelt as Laloo Prasad or Lalloo Prasad, (Devanāgarī: लालू प्रसाद यादव) Lālu Prasād (born June 11, 1947 Goplaganj, Bihar) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar. He is currently the Minister of Railways in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

He is currently a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha from the Chhapra constituency. He is known for his charismatic leadership and mass appeal among some of the backward castes and religious minorities, caste-based politics, as well as for the many corruption cases against him during his political tenure.

Earlier, Lalu served as Chief Minister of Bihar from 1990-1997, when he was forced to resign following escalating corruption charges in the Fodder scam.

Background

Lalu Prasad Yadav was born poor. in family of farmers in Phulwaria, Gopalganj district, Bihar to Kundan Rai and Marachhiya Devi.

On June 1, 1973 he married Rabri Devi. The two have two sons and seven daughters. According to him, his large family is a protest against the forced sterilization during the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77) declared by Indira Gandhi.

The eldest daughter is Misa Bharati, named after the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, the law which provided the police with an independent authority to arrest and detain persons without the permission of a court.He is naturalist in his religious beliefs.

Political career

Lalu's first political step was his active involvement in the elections of the Patna University Students' union. He led the student movement inspired by Jai Prakash Narayan in the 1970s.The[6]former Chief Minister of Bihar and the then President of Bihar State Janata Party,senior[8]leader Satyendra Narayan Sinha(affectionately called "Chhote Saheb" ) placed him as a candidate for the Lok Sabha and campaigned for him.He was subsequently elected as a member of 6th Lok Sabha on a Janata Party ticket at only 29 years of age, becoming one of the youngest members of the Indian Parliament then.

In a span of 10 years, he became a formidable force in Bihar State Politics. During the Indian general elections in 1989 and state assembly elections, he successfully led the National Front coalition in Bihar. It was, therefore, no surprise that he was elected the Chief Minister leaving behind Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from Janata Party when the Party came to power in the 1990 Assembly elections. The World Bank lauded his party for its work in the 1990s on the economic front.

According to the BBC, the police unearthed a Fodder Scam in 1996 worth Rs 950 crore (US$ 267 Million) in Bihar (dating back to the previous Congress Government) which allegedly involved Lalu and the State's leading bureaucrats and politicians, albeit the probe itself was ordered by him. To some people it is seen as counter by opposition to stop his unprecedented political growth. The fodder scam forced Mr. Yadav to resign from the office of Chief Ministerand he elected his wife, Rabri Devi, as his successor.

He formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 1997, after breaking away from the Janata Dal. According to Limca Book of Records, he is the longest serving president of an Indian Political Party.

But despite ruling the State of Bihar for 15 years, in November 2005 elections, his party, the RJD could win just 54 seats, which put his party in third place, after the Janata Dal United(JDU) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).

Railway minister

Prasad was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Chhapra and Madhepura seats of Bihar. He was named as the railway minister in the UPA Government. Later, he gave up the Madhepura seat.

He made the following controversial achievements during his ongoing stint as the Union Railway Minister:

* He banned plastic cups to serve tea at railway stations and ordered that they be replaced by kulhads (earthen cups). He claimed that the measure would generate more employment in rural areas. Later, he also said that he had plans to introduce buttermilk and khadi.

* In June 2004, he announced that he would get on the railway himself to inspect its problems and went on to board the Patna railway station at midnight.