Chaturanan Mishra (7 April 1925 – 2 July 2011)''The Economic Times''.
Former Minister Chaturanan Mishra passes away
' was an Indian politician and

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist. Mishra, who was born in Nahar,

Madhubani District Madhubani district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar, India, and is a part of Darbhanga division. Its administrative headquarters are located in Madhubani. The district has an area of and has a population of 4,487,379 (as of 20 ...

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

.
Biographical Sketch - Member of Parliament - XI Lok Sabha
' was a key leader of the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

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 ...

, and served as the Agriculture Minister of India in the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

government.

Quit India Movement

Mishra took part in the 1942 Quit India Movement.Mishra, S. N., L. M. Prasad, and Kushal Sharma.
Tribal Voting Behaviour: A Study of Bihar Tribes
'. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co, 1982. p. 76 Due to his pro-Independence activism, he had to go into exile in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

for a period. Back in India, he was imprisoned at

Darbhanga Darbhanga is the fifth largest city and municipal corporation in the state of Bihar in India, and is considered an important city in North Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. Darbhanga ...

jail.

1962–1980

He contested the

Giridih Giridih is headquarters of the Giridih district of Jharkhand state, India. The city of Giridih is known for its industrial and health sectors, as well as its scenery. Giridih houses the Giridih Coalfield which is one of the oldest coalfields to ...

seat in the 1962 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, finishing second with 6,379 votes. Mishra joined the National Council of the Communist Party of India in 1964. He became the president of the Bihar State Committee of the

All India Trade Union Congress The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union federation in India. It is associated with the Communist Party of India. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, AITUC had a membership of 14.2 mil ...

. Between 1969 and 1980 he was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Bihar, representing the

seat. He led the CPI faction in the Legislative Assembly for ten years. During this period he was referred to as 'the backbone of CPI in Bihar'. Madhubani, Mishra's home turf, got the nickname '

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

of Bihar'. Mishra also served as president of the World Miners Association for a period. Mishra contested the Hazaribagh seat in the 1977 Lok Sabha election. He finished third with 35,809 votes (12.45%).

1980s

He was defeated by

Urmila Devi Urmila (), is a Hindu goddess and the princess of Videha in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. She is considered to be an avatāra of Nagalakshmi, the serpent goddess. Urmila was married to Lakshmana and is known for her dedication towards her husb ...

of the

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

in a 1981 by-election (the 1980 election had been suspended following the death of Congress (I) candidate Randhir Prasad, Urmila Devi's husband). Mishra's candidature had been supported by the

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...

, RSP and

Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former Prime Minister Charan Singh. It was founded on 26 September 1979 by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party (Limaye) and Orissa Janata Party ...

. During the 1980s, Mishra became the president of the All India Trade Union Congress. In 1984 he was elected to the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

. In April 1989 he was included in the party secretariat of CPI. In 1990, he was again elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Union Minister

Mishra was elected to the

in the 1996 election from the Madhubani constituency with 282,194 votes. His candidature had been supported by

Janata Dal Janata Dal () was an List of political parties in India, Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha on 11 October 1988—the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Na ...

.''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

''.
Chaturanan Mishra may find the going tough this time
' After the election he became Union Minister for Agriculture, a position he would hold until 1998. Mishra was one of the two (along with Indrajit Gupta) first communist Union Ministers in Indian history. In May 1997 he also overtook the portfolios of Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution as Union Minister. In 1998 Mishra was excluded from the CPI secretariat. Officially health factors were claimed as the rationale behind his exclusion, but the press speculated that the move was motivated by Mishra's opposition on the position of the party in opposing the introduction of President's Rule in Bihar.''

''.
Chaturanan dropped from CPI secretariat
' Mishra died in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at the age of 86.

References

External links

*
No Subsidies For A Lost Cause
', article in ''Outlook'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mishra, Chaturanan 1925 births 2011 deaths Communist Party of India politicians from Bihar Members of the Cabinet of India Agriculture ministers of India Rajya Sabha members from Bihar Trade unionists from Bihar People from Madhubani district India MPs 1996–1997 Lok Sabha members from Bihar