Bhagwat Jha Azad

Bhagwat Jha Azad
22nd Chief Minister of Bihar
In office 14 February 1988 – 10 March 1989
Preceded by	Bindeshwari Dubey
Succeeded by	Satyendra Narayan Sinha
Constituency	Bihar
Personal details
Born	(1922-11-28)November 28, 1922 Godda, Jharkhand
Died	October 4, 2011(2011-10-04) (aged 88)

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 state legislature.

Early and personal life

Azad was born into a Maithili Brahmin family on 28 November 1922 in Kasba village near Mehrama in Godda district of undivided Bihar, which is now part of Jharkhand state. He completed his education from TNB Collegiate School and TNB College, Bhagalpur and Patna University. He was a college student when he plunged into the freedom struggle.

Political career

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

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, Chandrashekhar Singh, Satyendra Narayan Sinha and Kedar Pandey (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 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 of Bihar between 14 February 1988 and 10 March 1989.

Personal life

Azad was born into a Maithili Brahmin family in Kasba village near Mehrama in Godda district of undivided Bihar, which is now part of Jharkhand state. When he was still a teenager, Azad was married to a 10-year-old girl who came from a family of the same caste and similar background, in a match arranged by their parents in the usual Indian manner. The marriage, which lasted all their lives, was entirely harmonious. Out of his three sons eldest Prof. Dr Rajvardhan Azad a noted international figure in retinal surgery, former Director of Dr RP Centre AIIMS, New Delhi and currently Chairman, Bihar University Service commission and two other sons are public figures: Yashovardhan Azad, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who served in the Intelligence Bureau as Special Director and then served as the Chief Information Commissioner, and Kirti Azad, a former Lok Sabha member and a former cricketer who was part of the Indian team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

Bhagwat Jha Azad died in 2011 aged 89. He had been ailing for several years.