Bhagwat Jha Azad was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He served as Chief minister of Bihar from 14 February 1988 to 10 March 1989. He was at various times a member of parliament and a member of the

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

state legislature.

Political career

Azad was a 20-year-old college student when he took part in a demonstration as part of the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

in 1942. He was hit by a bullet in his leg, which incident made him famous in the press. After this, there was no going back for the young man, and a glittering political career was born. Later, Azad was also arrested several times by the British.Indian Parliament (1952-57): "Personalities"-Series 2 Authentic, ...by Trilochan Singh - 1954 Independence came in 1947, exactly five years after the Quit India Movement, and Azad was advantageously poised to make a career in politics. He was part of an influential cohort of politicians from Bihar who gained prominence on the national stage during the post-independence stage, known as the "Young Turks." He was a contemporary of Bindeshwari Dubey,

Abdul Gafoor ʻAbd al-Ghaffār ( ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الغفار) is a male Muslim given name, and, in modern usage, surname, built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Ghaffār'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to t ...

Chandrashekhar Singh Chandrashekhar Singh (17 August 1927 - 9 July 1986) was a member of the Indian National Congress and served as the 16th Chief Minister of Bihar from August 1983 to March 1985. He also held a number of Union State Minister positions in the Min ...

Satyendra Narayan Sinha Satyendra Narayan Sinha (12 July 1917 – 4 September 2006) was an Indian politician and statesman, participant in the Indian independence movement, a leading light of Jaya Prakash Narayan's ‘ ''complete revolution''’ movement during the E ...

and

Kedar Pandey Kedar Pandey (14 June 1920 – 3 July 1982) was an Indian freedom fighter and Indian National Congress politician, who remained the Chief Minister of Bihar from March 1972 to 2 July 1973, and Minister of Railways in the Union Cabinet from 12 ...

(all future chief ministers of Bihar); and of Sitaram Kesri, future national president of Indian National Congress. Azad represented Bhagalpur constituency in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

for five terms. He was elected to the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth Lok Sabha. He served as a Union minister of state from 1967 to 1983 in the ministries of agriculture, education, labour and employment, supply and rehabilitation, civil aviation and food and civil supplies. He was a veteran Congressman, and

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of Bihar between 14 February 1988 and 10 March 1989. Bhagwat Jha Azad died in 2011 aged 89. He had been ailing for several years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azad, Bhagwat Jha 1922 births 2011 deaths Chief Ministers of Bihar People from Bihar Indian independence activists from Bihar India MPs 1962–1967 India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 Patna University alumni People from Bhagalpur Lok Sabha members from Bihar Indian National Congress politicians Chief ministers from Indian National Congress Prisoners and detainees of British India Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar