Called an 'angry' Young Turk, he was put behind bars for his blunt views by his party leader -- the late Indira Gandhi -- during the infamous emergency in 1975. When he came out of prison in 1977, new political equations had emerged and the Congress was defeated.
Chandra Shekhar, who was born in 1927 in Ibrahimpatti, Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh, stood against politics of personality and stoutly opposed policies of liberalisation, reflecting the socialist ideology he strongly espoused.
After his student days in Allahabad University, he joined the socialist movement in the early 1950s. An associate of Acharya Narendra Dev, Chandra Shekhar was with the Praja Socialist Party for long and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1962.
As a member of Parliament, Chandra Shekhar made a mark opposing policies he thought were harmful and was strongly against growth of monopolies with State patronage.
Immediately after the emergency, Chandra Shekhar kept out of the power structure and became the first president of the Janata Party, formed in 1977 in the flush of electoral success that heralded the first non-Congress government at the Centre.
Known for courage of conviction and sticking to principles, the socialist veteran held no office before he split with V P Singh and floated a rebel outfit Janata Dal (Socialist) at the height of the anti-reservation agitation in 1990 and formed a weak minority government with outside support of the Congress, headed then by the late Rajiv Gandhi.
Chandra Shekhar's government was short-lived, because the Congress decided to withdraw support in the wake of a controversy over the spotting of two intelligence operatives outside 10, Janpath in the capital. The Congress felt it was an attempt to snoop on Gandhi.
Chandra Shekhar, who never shied away from controversies, breathed his last on July 8, 2007.
Photograph: Atul Chowdhury
Also read: A journalist remembers Chandra Shekhar
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