Hazaribagh - Politics

Politics

The Raja of Ramgarh had a big presence in the area, initially during the British period and then after independence when he set up the Janata Party that had a large following in the region for many years. His palace at Padma was a prominent spot on the road to Barhi.

Krishna Ballabh Sahay (Born in Khadhaiya, a village in Tandwa Block), the renowned freedom fighter and subsequently chief minister of Bihar belonged to Hazaribagh. As Revenue Minister, he was instrumental in the abolition of zemindaries in Bihar. In 1952 that was the first such legislation in the country. The political rivalry between the Kamakhya Narayan Singh, the Raja of Ramgarh and K.B.Sahay was talk of the town in the fifties of the twentieth century.

In the elections for the first Lok Sabha held in 1951, Nageshwar Prasad Sinha of Congress won the Hazaribagh East seat and Baboo Ram Narayan Singh, an Independent candidate, won the Hazaribagh West seat. In 1957, Lalita Rajya Lakshmi, of the Ramgarh Raj family, won the seat. Basant Narayan Singh, younger brother of Kamakhya Narayan Singh, won the seat four times, in 1962, 1967 and again in 1977 and 1980. Damodar Pandey of Congress had won it in 1984. Yadunath Pandey of BJP won it in 1989. Bhubneshwar Prasad Mehta of CPI won the seat in 1991 and in 2004. Mahabir Lal Viswakarma of BJP won the seat in 1996. Yashwant Sinha of BJP won the seat in 1998 and went on to become Finance Minister and latter Foreign Minister in the NDA government. He also won the seat in 2009 Lok Sabha Elections. Bhubneshwar Prasad Mehta of Communist Party of India (CPI) won the seat in 2004 with the help of seat sharing of the UPA.

Hazaribag Times is a local newspaper.