Karpoori Thakur: Things to know about 'Jan Nayak' honoured with Bharat Ratna

DH Web Desk

Karpoori Thakur was born to a marginal farmer in Samastipur in Bihar on January 1924.

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Thakur began his political activism as a young student. He joined the Quit India movement, during which he was imprisoned and spent several months in jail.

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Initially, Thakur worked as a teacher in a village school.

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However, he had always been interested in politics and took the political plunge in 1952. He contested elections from the Tajpur constituency as a candidate of the Socialist Party.

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The socialist leader rose to prominence in 1967, when the state saw its first non-Congress government headed by Mahamaya Prasad Sinha.

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Thakur then became the Deputy Chief Minister and is often remembered for doing away with English as a compulsory subject in schools.

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Thakur, popularly known as 'Jan Nayak', served as Chief Minister of Bihar from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979.

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He breathed his last in 1988 and is always remembered for his unwavering commitment to the marginalised sections of society.

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