Image Source: Twitter
Sharad Yadav, a former minister in the Union who also served as the leader of the RJD, passed away on January 12 at the age of 75. Through her Twitter account, his daughter Subhashini Sharad Yadav verified the news, writing, “Papa nahi rahe (Papa is no more)”.
पापा नहीं रहे 😭
— Subhashini Sharad Yadav (@Subhashini_12b) January 12, 2023
As a result of the declining state of the former minister’s health, he was transferred to the Fortis hospital in Gurugram. Sharad Yadav was brought to the emergency department of the hospital in a “unconscious and unresponsive state,” according to a statement made by the hospital. The statement also stated that Yadav did not have “any pulse or recordable blood pressure.”
At 10:19 p.m., the hospital reported that Yadav could not be brought back to life despite the greatest efforts of the medical staff, and he was pronounced dead at the facility.
Remembering Shared Yadav
Between the years 1999 and 2004, Sharad Yadav served in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet in a number of different capacities. In 2003, Yadav was elected president of the Janata Dal United JD(U), a political group that also includes Nitish Kumar, another one of his erstwhile followers. After he was unsuccessful in winning a seat in the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, Nitish Kumar assisted him in winning a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
In 2009, Sharad Yadav successfully defended his seat in the Lok Sabha as a representative of Madhepura. However, Yadav’s relationship with Nitish Kumar deteriorated when the JD(U) was soundly defeated in the general elections in 2014.
When the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar realigned with the BJP in 2017, Sharad Yadav refused to join, and as a result, the JD(U) moved to have him expelled from the Rajya Sabha.
Later on, Sharad Yadav severed ties with Nitish Kumar and went on to establish his own political party, which came to be known as the Loktantarik Janata Dal (LJD), in the year 2018.
As part of Yadav’s efforts to unite numerous offshoots of the former Janata Dal, he announced in March 2022 that the Rashtriya Janata Dal will combine with the Lok Janata Dal, which will result in the LJD being a component of the RJD. After more than three decades apart, Yadav and Lalu Prasad were finally brought back together by this event.