After US trip, Goyal goes straight from airport to Sharad Yadav’s home

| Updated: 13 January, 2023 3:34 pm IST

Union minister Piyush Goyal with the daughter of Sharad Yadav. (TNI photo)

Socialist leader Sharad Yadav was a champion of the struggle for the rights of the backward, Dalits, the oppressed and the poor, said Union minister Piyush Goyal as he paid his last respects to the former Union minister and veteran parliamentarian on Saturday.

After landing at the Delhi airport from New York, Goyal headed straight to Yadav’s residence in Chhatarpur area of Delhi to pay tributes to the leader whom he described as a “champion of the struggle for rights of the backward, Dalits, the oppressed and the poor”.

Speaking to reporters, the Union commerce and industry minister said, “With the demise of Sharad Yadav Ji, a long political life spanning five decades has come to an end today.”

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal greets Sharad Yadav’s wife at their residence in Delhi.

“He fought against the Emergency in 1972 and was a champion of the struggle for the rights of the poor, backwards, Dalit and the oppressed. He spent several years in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance). I met him frequently during those days. He contributed immensely to parliamentary debate and meetings,” minister Goyal said.

पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री शरद यादव जी के निधन का समाचार अत्यंत दुःखद है। दुःख की इस घड़ी में मेरी शोक संवेदनाएं उनके परिवारजनों और प्रशंसकों के साथ है।

भारत की राजनीति में उनका एक महत्वपूर्ण स्थान था। ईश्वर दिवंगत आत्मा को सद्गति प्रदान करें।

ॐ शांति

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) January 12, 2023

ALSO READ: Sharad Yadav was voice of repressed, his absence will be felt: Nadda

Goyal has returned from a three-day official visit to the United States where he held a series of meeting with investors and financial giants apart from participating in the 13th India-US Trade Policy Forum.

A stalwart in India’s socialist politics, Yadav breathed his last at Gurugram’s Fortis Hospital at the age of 75 years on Thursday night following a prolonged illness. He was taken to the emergency ward of the hospital in an “unconscious and unresponsive state” without any pulse or recordable blood pressure.

Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi trying to console Sharad Yadav’s wife at their residence in Delhi.

In a statement, his family said that Sharad Yadav’s last rites will be performed in his native village Aankh Mau in Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

Leaders from across the political spectrum paid floral tributes to the soul at his residence. BJP president JP Nadda, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, former Bihar CM and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Kumari Shelja, and Anil Chaudhary were among the leaders who paid tributes in person.