Veteran socialist and former Union minister Sharad Yadav no more

Veteran socialist and former Union minister Sharad Yadav died Thursday at the age of 75.

Sharad Yadav elected to the Lok Sabha seven times and hobnob with a pantheon of political luminaries ranging from Jayaprakash Narayan to Lalu Prasad.

His daughter Subhashini Sharad Yadav shared the news of his passing on social media with a three-word post: “Papa nahi rahen (Papa is no more)”.

He was a member of the Union cabinets of V P Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He handled portfolios of civil aviation and food in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government from 1999 to 2004.

In between, he also became the president of the JD(U) after Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) parted ways. He lost in the 2004 parliamentary polls but emerged victorious again in 2009 from Madhepura.