Ram Prasad Chaudhary

Ram Prasad Chaudhary is an Indian politician and a member of the 9th Lok Sabha, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. He represents the Kaptanganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh and is a member of the Samajwadi Party. He earlier also served as Minister of State in Mayawati cabinet, Minister of Textile and silk industry in Kalyan Singh government and Minister of Food and Civil Supplies in Mayawati cabinet. In June 2024, Chaudhary defeated Harish Dwivedi of Bharatiya Janata Party and was elected to Indian Parliament, Lok Sabha from Basti Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

Early life and education

Chaudhary was born 15 November 1954 in Jigna village in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh to father Manik Ram Chaudhary in a Kurmi family. In 1978, he attained Diploma in civil and electrical engineering from Government Polytechnic College, Basti. Chaudhary is married to Kapura Devi, with whom he has a son and two daughters. His nephew Arvind Kumar Chaudhary has been also an MP from Basti (Lok Sabha constituency) from 2009 to 2014 as a member of Bahujan Samaj Party.His son Shri Kavindra Chaudhary became MLA from Kaptanganj Assembly in 2022 from Samajwadi Party

Political career

Chaudhary started career as a member of parliament in 9th Lok Sabha from Khalilabad of Sant Kabir Nagar district as a member of Janata Party. After 1993 he was regular five time continuously MLA of Kaptanganj (Assembly constituency) of Basti district till 2017.
In Seventeenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh elections, he lost to Bhartiya Janata Party candidate Chandra Prakash Shukla by a margin of 6,827 votes.
In 2019 general elections, he was candidate of SP and BSP from Basti Lok Sabha seat. But he lost the election to BJP's Harish Dwivedi by a margin of 30,354 votes.
In November 2019, BSP supremo Mayawati expelled Chaudhary and three former MLAs from the party for indiscipline and anti-party activities. After the expulsion, Chaudhary joined the Samajwadi Party along with his colleagues in the presence of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.

Criminal cases

According to his election affidavit, Chaudhary has three pending criminal cases against him. In 2023, he was convicted under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Basti, and has not filed an appeal.
Earlier, he was acquitted by the MP/MLA court in an eight-year-old case registered under Section 171 of the Representation of the People Act, which alleged that he had distributed cash and sarees to influence voters during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign. The court exonerated him due to lack of evidence.