Mewalal Chaudhary (4 January 1953 – 19 April 2021) was a leader of

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal Pra ...

and a minister for a brief period of time in the

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

's cabinet. He was elected from the Tarapur assembly constituency to the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated m ...

in 2020, and was made a minister in charge of Education in the Bihar Government. However, he had to resign just three days after his appointment, amidst row over his alleged involvement in a corruption case, for which he was booked earlier. Chaudhary was an educationist, and prior to becoming a legislator, he was serving as Vice Chancellor of various agricultural universities in Bihar.

Biography

Born on 4 January 1953 to Deep Narayan Chaudhary in

Munger district Munger district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state in eastern India. Munger city is the administrative headquarters of this district. Munger district is a part of Munger Division. Its literacy rate of 73.3% is higher than the st ...

, Choudhary was Master of Science in Agriculture. He belonged to Kushwaha community. He was married to Neetu Chaudhary, who was a JD(U) MLA. Neetu however died in an accident caused by gas cylinder blast at her residence. He entered active politics in 2010 and remained successful in getting elected to

in the year 2015 on the ticket of Janata Dal (United). He defeated

Shakuni Choudhury Shakuni Choudhary (born 4 January 1936) is an Indian politician who is a founding member of Samata Party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency as member of the Samata Party ...

Hindustani Awam Morcha Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (translation: ''Indian People's Front''; abbreviated as HAM-S) is an Indian political party having presence in Bihar. HAM(S) got new symbol wok in Bihar Assembly Election 2020. Formation It was launched forma ...

in that election. He served as

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...

of Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa,

Samastipur Samastipur is a city and a municipal corporation (nagar nigam) in Bihar, India. It is the headquarter of Samastipur district and comes under Darbhanga division. The Budhi Gandak river flows through the town. It is one of the five railway divisi ...

and Bihar Agricultural University, Sabaur. Chaudhary was also one of the member of the Committee, which drafted Bihar Agricultural roadmap. Serving as the horticultural commissioner of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

, he assisted in development of the draft horticulture mission, micro irrigation project as well as ''National Bamboo Mission''. He has also worked for the upliftment of downtrodden. Chaudhary was allegedly involved in mismanagement of appointments to Bihar Agricultural University on the post of junior scientists and Professors while he was its head in 2017. Consequently, he was sacked by the ruling JD (U), which was ruling in alliance with the

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

with its former ally

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

in opposition. In the same year he was granted anticipatory bail in the said case and was taken back in the party in 2018. Chaudhary once again won from the Tarapur seat and was appointed education minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet in 2020. His appointment was questioned by the opposition; meanwhile serious allegations were also made against him, regarding death of his wife, by an

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS ...

officer, who linked it to political conspiracy pertaining to the Bihar Agricultural University 2017 scam. On 19 November 2020, just three days after assuming the office of education minister, he resigned amidst protest by the opposition regarding giving the ministerial berth to an accused of corruption. He was allegedly involved in fraudulent appointment to the post of agricultural Scientist and junior Professor during his tenure as Vice Chancellor of

Bihar Agricultural University Bihar Agricultural University is an autonomous institute under Bihar state government established on 5 August, 2010 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and is situated at Sabour, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. It is located at pre ...

Death

Chaudhary died on 19 April 2021 due to COVID-19 at Paras hospital in Patna, Bihar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhary, Mewalal 1953 births 2021 deaths People from Munger district Janata Dal (United) politicians Bihar MLAs 2020–2025 Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India Bihar MLAs 2015–2020 21st-century Indian politicians