Former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra passed away on Monday morning after prolonged illness. He was 82. The former CM breathed his last in Delhi. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed grief on the demise of the former three-time CM. A three-day state mourning has been declared in Bihar. The former CM will be cremated with full state honours.
Mishra had served as the Chief Minister of Bihar thrice — first time from April 11, 1975 to April 30, 1977; second time from June 8, 1980 to August 14, 1983 and third time from December 6, 1989 to March 10, 1990. He was also the Congress’ last Chief Minister in Bihar. Besides, he was a Cabinet minister at the Centre as well.
After his brother LN Mishra’s assassination in January 1975, Jagannath Mishra became arguably Bihar’s most powerful Congress leader. He was rated as the biggest mass leader in the Congress before the emergence of the social justice forces under Lalu Prasad Yadav’s leadership in 1990.
Mishra was referred to as ‘Maulana’ Jagannath because of his clout with the Muslims that he had earned by making Urdu as the second official language in Bihar in 1980.
After leaving Congress, he joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and later became a member of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). His son Nitish Mishra is also a politician and a member of Nitish Kumar’s cabinet.
In September 2013, he was convicted by a special CBI court in Ranchi along with 44 others in a fodder scam case. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. He was grated bail in July 2018 by the Jharkhand High Court granted. Mishra had maintained that his name was deliberately included in the scam at the behest of former Congress president Sitaram Kesri.
