Lalu Prasad Yadav rode "Mandal" wave to dominate Bihar politics

New Delhi [India], February 15 : Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who ruled Bihar for years, was convicted on Tuesday of fraudulent withdrawal from Doranda treasury by a CBI Special Court in Ranchi. Yadav rode the "Mandal" politics bandwagon in the 1990s to dominate Bihar politics, besides playing a key role in national politics.
He was lodged in the jail pertaining to a case linked to a fodder scam, but in April last year, the Jharkhand High Court had granted bail to the RJD supremo in the case of fraudulent withdrawal from Dumka Treasury, one of the cases related to the fodder scam for which he was convicted.
The former Chief Minister has so far completed half of his sentence in the case.
Born on June 11, 1948, Yadav is one of the most prominent leaders of Bihar who rose to prominence during the emergency years, and subsequently in the formation of Janata Dal after former Prime Minister V P Singh quit the Congress to lead the party in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.
He entered into politics as a student leader during his days at Patna University and at the age of 29. He held the record of being the youngest member of Lok Sabha in 1977 from Bihar's Chhapra seat as a Janata Party candidate.
However, Yadav left Janata Party in 1980 amid a feud with the party leadership and lost the Parliamentary elections in the same year.
Though he lost the Parliamentary elections in 1980, Yadav's rise in Bihar continued as he managed to win Bihar Legislative Assembly polls later that year.
He subsequently won the 1985 and 1989 Assembly polls in Bihar and became a popular leader among youths in the state.
In 1989, Yadav, who till then had established himself as the face of Yadavs, was elected for Lok Sabha. In 1990, Yadav became the Chief Minister of Bihar.
He secured another term in the office after the Assembly elections in 1995 but was forced to resign amid allegations of corruption after which he made his wife Rabri Devi the Chief Minister of the state and silently controlled the politics in Bihar.
In 1997, Yadav parted ways with Janata Dal and formed Rashtriya Janata Dal on July 5 later that year.
In 1998, he was re-elected from Madhepura in the Lok Sabha Elections.
He, however, lost to Sharad Yadav in the 1999 general elections. The RJD supremo won the Bihar Assembly elections in 2000 but by then his party lost the mandate and sat in the Opposition.
In May 2004, he tried his luck in the Lok Sabha elections and contested from Chhapra and Madhepura against Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sharad Yadav respectively. He won from both seats by huge margins.
Yadav's stronghold in Bihar forced Congress to form an alliance with the RJD. With 21 seats, RJD became the second-largest member of UPA I and Yadav became the Railways Minister. He later gave up the Madhepura seat.
Yadav won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections but the RJD won just four seats and provided outside support to the Congress.
However, Yadav was barred from contesting the elections for six years due to his conviction in the fodder scam case in 2013. Yadav subsequently transferred the leadership of RJD to his son Tejashwi Yadav.
In 2015, the RJD, which was now a part of the Grand Alliance that also included the Congress and Nitish Kumar's JD (U), returned to power in Bihar. The RJD also became the single-largest party in Bihar as it won 81 seats.
However, Kumar left the Grand Alliance and joined the NDA again after the CBI and ED lodged cases against Lalu's son Tejashwi. In 2020, Yadav was declared as the coordinator of Mahagathbandhan for the Assembly polls as he controlled the RJD from behind the bars.
Though the RJD emerged as the single-largest party in Bihar in 2020, the Grand Alliance failed to return to power as Nitish Kumar-led NDA managed to retain power in the state.