Jitendra Prasada (12 November 1938 – 16 January 2001) was an Indian politician and a former vice-president of the

Indian National Congress 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 E ...

. He was also the political advisor to two prime ministers of India, Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and P. V. Narasimha Rao in 1994. Prasad fought Congress Party's presidential election against Sonia Gandhi on 9 November 2000 but he was defeated. He died on 16 January 2001 in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

following a cerebral haemorrhage.

Personal life

Jitendra Prasada was born to Kunwar Jyoti Prasada and Pamela Devi at

Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Uttar Pradesh, India. The city is between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was established by Di ...

on 12 November 1938. His grandmother Purnima Devi was the niece of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

and mother Pamela Devi belonged to the royal family of Kapurthala State. He was educated at Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences. Other institutes include Sherwood College,

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

, Colvin Taluqdars College,

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

. He married Kanta Prasada on 27 January 1973. This couple have a son, Jitin Prasada and a daughter, Jahnavi Prasada. The family of Jitendra Prasada resides at Prasad Bhawan, Shahjahanpur.

Political career

Prasad entered

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

as a member of

Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad'') is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh, a state in India. Uttar Pradesh is one of the six states in India, where the state legislature is ...

in 1970. He was elected to the 5th Lok Sabha in 1971 from Shahjahanpur constituency. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984 from the same constituency. He was a member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from 1994 to 1999. He was again elected to the

13th Lok Sabha The 13th Lok Sabha (10 October 1999 – 6 February 2004) is the thirteenth session of the Lok Sabha (House of the People, or lower house in the Parliament of India). It was convened after 1999 Indian general election held during September–Oc ...

in 1999 from Shahjahanpur constituency.

Posts held

*President, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee since 5 January 1995 *Vice-President, AICC, June, 1997 to April, 1998 *Chairman, Co-operative Bank, Shahjahanpur *Vice-Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Celebration Committee *Cabinet Secretariat; General Secretary, AICC, 1985 *Political Secretary to Rajiv Gandhi, (Congress President) *Political Secretary to P.V. Narasimha Rao, (Congress President) *Member, Indian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, 1983 *Member, Congress Working Committee, 1992 and 1997 *Member, Estimates Committee, 1980–82 *Member, Committee of Privileges, 1994–96 *Member, Committee on Home Affairs, 1995–97 *Member, Committee on Commerce *Member, Committee on Public Undertakings *Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Commerce

Notes

External links

Biographical sketch from Parliament of India records
1938 births 2001 deaths People from Shahjahanpur Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences alumni Indian National Congress politicians India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1999–2004 Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh MLAs 1969–1974 Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh {{UttarPradesh-INC-politician-stub