'Great loss for socialist fraternity': Tejashwi, Sushil Modi condole Sharad Yadav's death

Patna: Political leaders in Bihar, cutting across party lines, on Thursday expressed grief over the demise of former Union minister Sharad Yadav, who had adopted the state as his veritable "karmabhoomi".

Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, with whose RJD the veteran socialist leader had merged his Loktantrik Janata Dal a couple of years ago, in a video message said on Twitter said it was a great loss for the socialist fraternity.

"It is a great loss for the socialist fraternity, coming close on the heels of the demise of Netaji (Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav)," he said.

Notably, Sharad Yadav had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on an RJD ticket from Madhepura, a seat won by him four times. In the assembly poll a year later, his daughter Subhashini Yadav was the RJD candidate from Bihariganj.

A condolence message was also issued by former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader who recalled the key role played by Yadav, then the NDA convenor, in his appointment to the post when the JD(U)-BJP combine came to power in Bihar in 2005.

"Sharad Yadav was my political guardian. He played an important role in my appointment as Deputy CM. Bihar will never forget his contributions," tweeted Modi.

Notably, Yadav was said to have been ambivalent of the decision to snap ties with BJP in 2013, which he had to accede to as the then JD(U) national president upon the insistence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the party’s de facto leader.

Kumar's decision to realign with the BJP four years later caused Yadav to revolt, resulting in the latter's disqualification from the Rajya Sabha.