Strategist Par Excellence

Sharad Yadav, who defeated his erstwhile friend-turned-foe Laloo Prasad Yadav to become the Janata Dal president, has the reputation of a shrewd tactician and a strategist par excellence.

The 52-year-old bearded Yadav from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, who represented the rise of backwards, especially the Yadavs, in politics along with Mulayam Singh and Laloo Prasad, belongs to the non-Congress political stream and is a product of socialist school.

He first shot into prominence when he was jailed under Misa for allegedly inspiring a police revolt. Jayaprakash Narayan who asked him to contest in a by-election in Jabalpur shortly before the Emergency and long before the Janata Party was born.

Yadav was imprisoned soon after Emergency. He was among the two opposition MPs to resign from the Lok Sabha in protest against extension of the term of the Lok Sabha. When the Janata Party came to power in 1977, Sharad Yadav was made president of the All India Yuva Janata Dal but shortly thereafter he aligned with Charan Singh during the split in 1979. Yadav hit headlines again when the Janata Dal was formed in 1988 and became president of the All India Yuva Lok Dal. He became the textile minister in the National Front government headed by VP singh and began to emerge as a leader in his own right.

As Devi Lal's man, he played a special role in countering the late H N Bahuguna. But later, when differences cropped up between the two, he shifted his allegiance to V P Singh.

Sharad Yadav also played a signficant role in the installation of Laloo Prasad Yadav as the Bihar Chief Minister in 1989 by outsmarting several senior Dal leaders.

As a claimed champion of backward classes, Yadav was instrumental in the implementation of the controversial Mandal commission report at the fag end of the VP Singh government.

When the United Front came to power in 1996, Yadav was denied a berth in the council of ministers on charges of his alleged involvement in the Jain hawala case. But, later on he was made the working president of the party.

During the last one year, he assiduously consolidated his hold over the party which his detractors said resulted in the manipulation of voters list, an issue over which the party split on Saturday.

In the run upto to the July three party presidential poll, he teamed up with former Prime Minister h d deve gowda which earned the ire of the Bihar Chief Minister after which the two parted roads.