Dr Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963)

Dr Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963)

• Prasad’s involvement in the country’s freedom movement started during his student days when he attended an Indian National Congress session as a volunteer in 1906.
• Formally, he joined the Indian National Congress in the year 1911, when the annual session was again held in Calcutta.
• During the Lucknow Session of Indian National Congress held in 1916 he met Mahatma Gandhi. During one of the fact-finding missions at Champaran, Mahatma Gandhi asked him to come with his volunteers.
• He was so greatly moved by the dedication, courage and conviction of Mahatma Gandhi that as soon as the motion of Non-Cooperation was passed by Indian National Congress in 1920, he retired from his lucrative career of lawyer as well as his duties in the university to aid the movement.
• He wrote articles for the revolutionary publications Searchlight and the Desh and collected funds for these papers.
• He took an active role in helping people affected by the 1914 floods that struck Bihar and Bengal.
• He was elected as the President of the INC  during the Bombay session in October 1934.
• He again became the president when Subhash Chandra Bose resigned in 1939.
• He spent almost 3 years in jail after the Quit India Movement
• After the formation of Interim Government of 12 nominated ministers under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 September 1946, he was allocated the Food and Agriculture department
• He was elected as the President of Constituent Assembly on 11 December 1946.
• On 17 November 1947 he became Congress President for a third time after J. B. Kripalani submitted his resignation.
• He was re-elected for two consecutive terms in 1952 and 1957, and is the only President of India to achieve this feat. [longest-serving president till date]
• He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1962.