India socialist leader Sharad Yadav dies at age 75

• The former federal minister  had been ill for some time.
• He passed away on Thursday night in a hospital in Delhi.
• Sharad Yadav, who passed away at the age of 75, is being remembered by Indian lawmakers.

One of India’s most prominent socialist leaders, Sharad Yadav, who passed away at the age of 75, is being remembered by Indian lawmakers.

The former federal minister, who had been ill for some time, passed away on Thursday night in a hospital in Delhi.

Over the past few years, his political career, which lasted more than fifty years, has experienced numerous ups and downs.

But up until the very end, he kept friendly contacts with political figures from all sides.

After merging his own party, the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), with the bigger political party last year, Yadav was a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) at the time of his death.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, the leader of the RJD, stated on Thursday night that their disputes had never resulted in resentment. He was once a buddy who then became an adversary and later an ally.

Mr. Yadav, who recorded an emotional video message from Singapore, where he has been recovering following a kidney transplant, added, “We shouldn’t have said goodbye like this.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his sadness over the news on Twitter.

Mr. Modi said that he “distinguished himself as an MP and minister in his lengthy years in public life” and that he will always “cherish” their “interactions”.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, paid a sympathy visit to Yadav’s family members in Delhi.

“Sharad Yadav ji taught me a lot about politics. I am devastated by his passing today. He had a respectful relationship with my grandmother, Indira Gandhi “On Friday, Mr. Gandhi informed reporters.

Yadav, who was born in the state of Madhya Pradesh in 1947, attended engineering school before deciding to pursue a career in politics.

He belonged to a group of politicians who were influenced by the towering socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia and began their political careers by taking part in protests against the administration of the time’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

Yadav defeated the then-dominant Congress party in his first election, which he won with a commanding majority in 1974.

He was instrumental in the late 1980s in seeing that a federal government commission’s proposals to extend affirmative action programmes to Other Backward Classes—a broad category of lower and intermediate castes in India—were carried out.

He served as a minister in the VP Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee federal administrations.

He was one of the founding members of the Janata Dal (United) in 2003; after 15 eventful years, he left the party in 2018. He then founded the LJD, which had little political impact.

His daughter shared the following three Hindi words on Twitter on Thursday night: Papa Nahi Rahe (Father is no more).

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