Chandrashekhar Azad (born 3 December 1986; ), also known as Chandrashekhar Azad alias 'Ravan', is an Indian politician, social activist, Ambedkarite and lawyer. He is serving as a Member of Parliament of the

18th Lok Sabha The 18th Lok Sabha was formed after general elections were held in India over seven phases from 19 April to 1 June 2024, to elect all members from 543 constituencies of the Lok Sabha. The votes were counted, and the results were declared on 4 ...

from Nagina since June 2024. He is the chief and co-founder of the Bhim Army, and the National President of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram). In February 2021, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine featured him in its annual list of ''100 Emerging Leaders who are Shaping the Future''.

Posts held

Early life

Chandrashekhar Azad was born on 3 December 1986, village Chhutmalpur in

Saharanpur Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the public administration, administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district. Saharanpur city's name was given after the Sain ...

, Western Uttar Pradesh. Growing up in a Dalit family, Azad experienced caste-based discrimination, which influenced his early interest in social justice and advocacy. His father, Govardhan Das, retired as a principal of a

government school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

. Azad came to prominence as a

Bahujan ''Bahujan'' is a Pali language, Pali term frequently found in Buddhist literature, Buddhist texts, with a literal meaning of "the many", or "the majority". In a modern context, it refers to the combined population of the Scheduled Castes, Schedule ...

leader after he installed a hoarding titled ''The Great Chamars of Ghadkhauli Welcome You'' on the outskirts of his village. Chandra Shekhar Azad started free coaching classes for all categories and distributed free books for poor students to study.

Activism and politics

Azad, Satish Kumar, and Vinay Ratan Singh founded Bhim Army in 2014, an organisation that works for the emancipation of

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

s through education in India. It runs free schools for Dalits in western

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. In 2020, he founded the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram). 5656 UP legislative Assembly elections, he contested the Gorakhpur Urban Assembly constituency against

Yogi Adityanath Yogi Adityanath (born Ajay Mohan Singh Bisht; 5 June 1972) is an Indian Hindu monk and politician. He is currently serving as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 19 March 2017, became the first to hold the office for two consecutive ter ...

, with Azad getting 3.06% of the vote share and losing his deposit. In the 2024 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh, Azad Samaj Party (ASP) candidate Chandrashekhar Azad won the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency by 1,51,473 votes. He got 5,12,552 votes. BJP's Om Kumar came second, who got 3,61,079 votes.

Imprisonment

*He was arrested in relation to the Saharanpur violence incident. Azad was arrested under the National Security Act by the Uttar Pradesh Government. Afterwards he was granted bail by the

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established o ...

after his lawyer argued that the arrests were politically motivated. *Delhi Police had denied permission to Chandrashekhar Azad's protest march against the

Citizenship (Amendment) Act The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted refugees of religious minorit ...

from Delhi Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar. He entered into protest at Jama Masjid and was arrested by Delhi police and detained for several days.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azad, Chandrasekhar 1986 births Living people Dalit activists Activists from Uttar Pradesh Social workers from Uttar Pradesh People from Saharanpur district 20th-century Indian lawyers University of Lucknow alumni India MPs 2024–2029 Ravidassia Dalit politicians Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh

Posts held

Early life

Activism and politics

Imprisonment

See also

References