Chandrashekhar Azad (politician)

Chandrashekhar Azad (born 3 December 1986; Hindi pronunciation: [t͡ʃən̪d̪ɾəʃeːkʰəɾ aːzaːd̪]), also known as Chandrashekhar Azad alias 'Ravan', is an Indian politician, social activist, Ambedkarite and lawyer. He is serving as a Member of Parliament of the 18th Lok Sabha from Nagina since June 2024. He is the chief and co-founder of the Bhim Army, and the National President of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram). In February 2021, Time magazine was paid to feature him in its annual list of 100 Emerging Leaders who are Shaping the Future.

Posts held

Early life

Chandrashekhar Azad was born on 3 December 1986, village Chhutmalpur in Saharanpur, Western Uttar Pradesh. Growing up in a Dalit family, Azad experienced caste-based discrimination, which influenced his early interest in social justice and advocacy. His father, Govardhan Das, retired as a principal of a government school. Azad came to prominence as a Bahujan leader after he installed a hoarding titled The Great Chamars of Ghadkhauli Welcome You on the outskirts of his village. Chandra Shekhar Azad started free coaching classes for all categories and distributed free books for poor students to study.

Activism and politics

Azad, Satish Kumar, and Vinay Ratan Singh founded Bhim Army in 2014, an organisation that works for the emancipation of Dalits through education in India. It runs free schools for Dalits in western Uttar Pradesh.

In 2020, he founded the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).

5656 UP legislative Assembly elections, he contested the Gorakhpur Urban Assembly constituency against Yogi Adityanath, with Azad getting 3.06% of the vote share and losing his deposit.

In the 2024 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh, Azad Samaj Party (ASP) candidate Chandrashekhar Azad won the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency by 1,51,473 votes. He got 5,12,552 votes. BJP's Om Kumar came second, who got 3,61,079 votes.

Imprisonment

He was arrested in relation to the Saharanpur violence incident. Azad was arrested under the National Security Act by the Uttar Pradesh Government. Afterwards he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court after his lawyer argued that the arrests were politically motivated.

Delhi Police had denied permission to Chandrashekhar Azad's protest march against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act from Delhi Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar. He entered into protest at Jama Masjid and was arrested by Delhi police and detained for several days.