PATNA: Veteran socialist and previous Union minister Sharad Yadav died Thursday at the age of 75, marking the end of an age that saw him elected to the Lok Sabha 7 times and hobnob with a pantheon of political stars varying from Jayaprakash Narayan to Lalu Prasad.

His daughter Subhashini Sharad Yadav shared the news of his handing down social networks with a three-word post: Papa nahi rahen (Papa is no more) .

An engineer by training, Yadav had been drawn to Ram Manohar Lohias socialism and broke into politics in 1974 when he managed an upset in the byelection to the Jabalpur Lok Sabha seat as the joint opposition prospect.

His triumph in the election, held versus the background of spiralling demonstrations versus the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government, was as much an embarrassment for the then PM as it was a fillip for Jayaprakashs effort to bring opposition parties together versus Congress.Yadav would go on to make his mark as a powerful orator and retain Jabalpur in 1977, only to lose it in the next election-- a problem that forced him to explore options outside his home state and brought him first to UP and, finally, to Bihar, which was to become his political house.

He was a member of the Union cabinets of V P Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Although pressed to the margins in his golden years, Yadav played a crucial function in forming politics throughout the 1980s and the 90s.

He played a crucial function in the development of Janata Dal in the 1980s to successfully handle Congress in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls and was amongst the crucial players who dominated on the then PM V P Singh to implement the Mandal Commission report.

He likewise organised the OBC resistance to the proposal to present 33% appointment for women, dismissing the demand as a conspiracy of the upper caste elite and buffooning the ladies activists promoting it as parkatis .

Although counted among the leading OBC lights who turned their version of quota-centric social justice and hardline secularism into one of the key themes of modern politics, Yadav had a chequered formula with socialists and Mandalites alike.

His ties with Devi Lal and George Fernandes, and even V P Singh, followed a yo-yo pattern.

He couldnt get along with Mulayam Singh Yadav either.

His ties with Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar ebbed and flowed, depending on each others political requirements of the moment.After losing to BJP in Badaun, the seat which he had actually won in 1989, Yadav moved to Madhepura in Bihar.

He was elected from the Yadav bastion in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2009.

He handled portfolios of civil aviation and food in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led federal government from 1999 to 2004.

In in between, he likewise became the president of the JD(U) after Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) parted methods.

He lost in the 2004 parliamentary surveys but emerged victorious once again in 2009 from Madhepura.Once considered to be good friends, Yadav and Nitish parted methods prior to he formed his own celebration, Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), in 2018.

This coincided with JD(U) inching near to BJP.In the 2017 Bihar assembly elections, when the JD(U) under Nitish realigned with the BJP, Sharad Yadav declined to follow, for which the JD(U) sought his expulsion from the Rajya Sabha.Later, Yadav parted methods with Nitish Kumar and founded his own celebration, the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) in 2018.

5 years later, in 2022, Yadav combined LJD with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which saw the latter emerging more powerful.

His daughter Subhashni was even given area in the RJDs nationwide council.

Both Lalu and Nitish refused to be under his tutelage, however were not averse to roping him in when the need arose.The increase of BJP under Modi pressed him into near obscurity: the last time he made headlines was when he lost the fight to retain his bungalow in Tughlaq Road and when Rahul Gandhi visited him.

Being an astute politician, he checked out the tea lives well and merged his Rashtriya Janata Dal with RJD.Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Yadavs death with a tweet: Pained by the diing of Shri Sharad Yadav Ji.

In his long years in public life, he distinguished himself as MP and Minister.

He was considerably motivated by Dr.

Lohias perfects.

I will constantly treasure our interactions.

Condolences to his family and admirers.

Om Shanti.

Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav described him as the Mandal messiah .

Tejashwi wrote, I remain in deep sorrow after becoming aware of the demise of this fantastic socialist leader and my guardian.

I am unable to state anything.

I had a conversation with mata Ji and brother Shantanu.

In this time of sorrow, the entire socialist family is with them.