Ajit Kumar Mehta (born 3 February 1932 Fatehpur Bala,

Samastipur district Samastipur is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar in India. The district headquarters are located at Samastipur. The district occupies an area of 2904km² and has a population of 4,261,566. Samastipur was the largest milk producing distr ...

(Bihar)) was member of

6th Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. The 6th Lok Sabha, which ran from 23 March 1977 to 22 August 1979 was elected in February and March 1977. 11 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 6th ...

from

Samastipur (Lok Sabha constituency) Samastipur is one of the 40 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Bihar state in eastern India. It is reserved for Scheduled Castes. In the Legislative Assembly segment of this Lok Sabha constituency, Kushwaha, and Yadav caste are dominant ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

State,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was elected to 7th, 11th and

12th Lok Sabha The 12th Lok Sabha (23 March 1998 – 26 April 1999), was constituted after the 1998 Indian general election held during February–March 1998. This was the second consecutive Lok Sabha, like the 11th Lok Sabha elections that did not provide the ...

from Samastipur. Before joining active politics, Mehta was an educationist, working as professor at

Birla Institute of Technology Mesra Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (BIT, Mesra) is a government funded technical institute (GFTI) situated at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. It was declared as a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act. The institute was included under S ...

. In his early age, he also worked as an

Indian independence activist The Indian independence movement consisted of efforts by individuals and organizations from a wide spectrum of society to obtain political independence from the British, French and Portuguese rule through the use of many methods. This is a li ...

. Mehta was a member of

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

camp during Indian freedom struggle and had remained an active part of Azad Dasta (a rebel group constituted by

Jayprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and Indian independence activist, independence activist. He is mai ...

) during Quit India movement.

Biography

Mehta was born on 3 February 1932 to Ram Khelawan Mehta in Fatehpur Bala village of

of Bihar in a

Koeri The Koeri (spelt as Koiry or Koiri), also referred to as Kushwaha and more recently self-described as Maurya in several parts of northern India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional oc ...

family. An alumnus of Science College, Patna, Bihar College of Engineering, Patna and

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (BIT, Mesra) is a government funded technical institute (GFTI) situated at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. It was declared as a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act. The institute was included under ...

, he worked as a professor and technologist after completing his education. Besides being an engineer, he also worked as a political and social worker. Mehta was inspired by his father Ram Khelawan Mehta, who was freedom fighter and his teacher Palakdhari Singh. He participated in Indian Freedom Struggle in his early childhood, as a result of which arrest warrants were issued against him. He was supported by his elder brother Chandra Bhanu Mehta; both of them were involved in revolutionary activities during the Quit India movement, 1942. During the same time, he came in contact with

Karpoori Thakur Karpoori Thakur (24 January 1924 – 17 February 1988) was an Indian politician who served two terms as the 11th Chief Minister of Bihar, first from December 1970 to June 1971, and then from June 1977 to April 1979. He was popularly known as Ja ...

and assisted the 'Azad Dasta', a rebel group made by socialist leaders during the 1942 Quit India movement. He along with his elder brother helped Vashishta Narayan Singh, a revolutionary, in seeking shelter after his escape from Darbhanga Jail. Until 1949, Mehta remained an active member of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, but later switched to

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. He also remained member of

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded in 1952 when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the ...

and

Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1974. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1965, Ram Manohar Lohia merged his Socialist Party (Lohia) with SSP and conteste ...

after leaving Congress in 1949. Later he became a member of

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

during 1977-79 and 1982. As an Engineer and Technologist he also worked as technical assistant for Gandak Project. Mehta was also engaged in pedagogy as Assistant Professor in B.I.T. Ranchi. He finally retired as Professor from the B.I.T. in 1992.

Political career

Mehta was elected to

in 1978 and during 1979-82, he served as a member of

Parliamentary Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

on Papers Laid on the Table. In 1980, he was re-elected to

7th Lok Sabha The 7th Lok Sabha, (18 January 1980 – 31 December 1984) was elected in 1980 Indian general election. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India nine sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 7th Lo ...

for his second term. His political achievements raised him to important position of

whip A whip is a blunt weapon or implement used in a striking motion to create sound or pain. Whips can be used for flagellation against humans or animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain, or be used as an audible cue thro ...

of Janata Party in Lok Sabha. He subsequently became member of various other parliamentary committees like, Committee on Public Undertakings (1982–83), Committee on Estimates (1983–84), Committee on Public Accounts (1996–97), Committee on Human Resource Development (1998–99) and Committee on Petitions. In 1996, he was re-elected to

11th Lok Sabha The 11th Lok Sabha was constituted after April–May 1996 general elections. The result of the election was a hung parliament, which would see three Prime Ministers in two years and force the country back to the polls in 1998. Atal Bihari Vajpa ...

for his third term. In 1998 Lok Sabha elections, he was again elected to 12th Lok Sabha becoming the Member of Parliament for four terms.

Social and cultural activities

Besides politics, Mehta also participated in many socio-cultural activities. He served as member of planning forum of Birla Institute of Technology and was involved in many projects pertaining to rural development,

industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

in rural areas and upliftment of the downtrodden. Mehta also served as president of Akhil Bharatiya Kushwaha Mahasabha from 1980-86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Ajit Kumar 1932 births People from Samastipur district India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1977–1979 India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1998–1999 Lok Sabha members from Bihar Living people Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians Janata Party (Secular) politicians Janata Party politicians Janata Dal politicians Praja Socialist Party politicians Samyukta Socialist Party politicians Lok Dal politicians Indian independence activists from Bihar

Biography

Political career

Social and cultural activities

See also

References