Mohammed Taslimuddin

Taslimuddin is a very senior RJD Leader who is currently MP in 16th Lok Sabha.He is very strong man & he has emerged stronger after each political hardship. A powerful people support base he has been told as the Seemanchal Gandhi .He has courted over a political life spanning over five decades. Starting his political graph with a short stint in panchayat-level politics in the early '60s, Taslimuddin has stayed in the political firmament like no one else in the political backwaters in Kishanganj , Araria, Purnia & Katihar. He has very powerful people support base in seemanchal region.

Whichever side of the political spectrum he may be, every political adversary and detractor has extended olive branch to him at one or the other point of time. He has huge political clout in the region, loosely known as SEEMANCHAL comprising Purnia, Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar. He is indisputably a very powerful persona in the political domain of SEEMANCHAL .

Born in a poor peasant family in a nondescript village of SISAUNA , JOKIHAT in ARARIA district, TASLIMUDDIN was elected MLA as well as MP on seven and five occasions, respectively.Between 1969 to 1996, he was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly seven times. In between, in 1989, he became a member of the 9th Lok Sabha. He has been a member of the 11th (1996), 12th(1998), 14th Lok Sabha (2004) & 16th Lok Sabhas (2014).

A political Giant , he would never stick to any single political outfit . He pitchforked himself in the political firmament when he, on a Congress ticket, won the Araria seat in 1969,. He has criss-crossed the political chessboard, shedding political affiliations .

Taslimuddin is the only political figure who has represented Araria, Jokihat and Kishanganj Assembly segments successfully for one or more occasion. He has represented Purnia and Kishanganj , Araria parliamentary constituencies too. He was elected MP from Purnia on a Janata Dal ticket in 1989. He lost the 1991 lok sabha seat from kishaganj . He, however, bounced back by winning the Jokihat seat in 1995 as Samajwadi Party nominee & the Kishanganj parliamentary seat in 1996.

He has been Appointed junior minister of Home Affairs in the Deve Gowda government. He was the Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in UPA1.

Taslimuddin again won in 1998 LS polls from Kishanganj on an RJD ticket, defeating BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain by more than 2 lakh votes. But he conceded the seat to Shahnawaz Hussain in 1999 only to win back the seat from Shahnawaz, his political bete noire, in 2004. He was soon appointed a minister of state in UPA 1. But, his extremely chequered political life halted at the tracks when he lost the 2009 LS polls. His hold is so strong in the region that even in the Modi wave he defeated the BJP's sitting M.P in 16th lok sabha in 2014. Mohammed Taslimuddin son Sarfaraz Alam is a JDU MLA from Jokihat & relative, Saba Zafar is a BJP MLA from the Amour Vidhan Sabha constituency.

Acerbic and sharp tongueed, Taslimuddin has an altogether different political lexicon. If he has cocked a snook at RJD chief Lalu Prasad by snapping ties with the RJD and switching over to Lalu's political rival Nitish Kumar, he even refused the post of parliamentary secretary offered by Karpoori Thakur. He also hobnobbed with former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar when they dabbled in the movement for democracy in Nepal.

Taslimuddin has a great penchant for literary jamborees, mushiaras and cultural soirees. He has enormous respect for litterateurs, poets and men with literary flavour, and loves to bask in the company of literati.

Taslimuddin said, "My lack of knowledge of English was a great impediment. Otherwise, I was always comfortable with bureaucrats and others."

"I have never compromised on my principles and will fight hair and nail for the poor and the deprived," he says with a sense of pride.