Rabri Devi: Bihar's Only Woman Chief Minister Who Got There Accidentally

Once an accidental chief minister, Rabri Devi remains a prominent face of the RJD as the party tries to return to power in Bihar after 20 years. 

Known for being vocal on issues related to women's safety, Rabri Devi has trained her guns on the ruling NDA. In July, she accused BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary of hooliganism and harassing women in Patna. She also claimed  that the BJP and JD(U) had plotted to "kill" her son Tejashwi Yadav, RJD's Chief Minister candidate.

All About Rabri Devi

Rabri Devi was born on January 1, 1955, in Gopalganj, to Shiv Prasad Chaudhary, a contractor. The third of seven children, she studied up to the fifth standard.

When her father began searching for a groom, the village chief mentioned a boy from Phulwaria who was studying in Patna. That boy was Lalu Prasad Yadav. Years later, Rabri Devi recalled on a television interview that her maternal uncle warned her father the boy "did not own a house" and suggested she should be married into a family of similar means. But her father was already convinced.

In 1973, Rabri married Lalu Yadav. They have nine children: seven daughters and two sons. Before entering politics, the couple lived modestly in the peon's quarters of Patna Veterinary College. Even after Lalu became Chief Minister in 1990 and was allotted an official bungalow, the family continued living at the Patna Veterinary College campus for months.

Rabri Devi's political journey began unexpectedly. In 1997, she was sworn in as the first woman Chief Minister of Bihar after Lalu Yadav had to step down following corruption charges in the fodder scam. She went on to serve three terms, leading the state for seven years (1997-2005), and became the last Chief Minister of undivided Bihar before Jharkhand was carved out under the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000.

Her tenure witnessed rising crime, corruption, and caste violence, earning Bihar the infamous label of "Jungle Raj." Her term as Chief Minister came to an end after Nitish Kumar took office in 2005.

Rabri Devi was elected three times to the Bihar Assembly from the Raghopur constituency. In the 2010 Assembly elections, she contested from Raghopur and Sonpur, but lost both seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she contested from Saran but was defeated by Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP. Later, Rabri Devi was elected unopposed to the Bihar Legislative Council.