Devi Prasad Tripathi (29 November 1952 – 2 January 2020) was an Indian politician and General Secretary of the

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party in ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Early life

Devi Prasad Tripathi was born in Sultanpur

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. As a student, Tripathi was president of

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

Students' Union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

, and later taught at

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

as a professor of politics.

Career

He was also the editor of the quarterly journal ''Think India''. He spoke Indian and several foreign languages, and lectured in a number of foreign universities. Having become involved in politics at the age of sixteen, Tripathi became one of Prime Minister

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

's aides. He left the

Congress Party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, however, over his opposition to

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

, the President of the Party, becoming Prime Minister (because of her foreign origin). He joined the

in 1999, and reached the position of its General Secretary and chief spokesman. He was responsible for negotiating over seat-sharing in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

References

1954 births 2020 deaths Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Academic staff of the University of Allahabad Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh People from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh Centre for Political Studies (CPS), Jawaharlal Nehru University Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Maharashtra {{Maharashtra-NCP-politician-stub