Bhopal: A politician accepted to leaders of all political parties, Babulala Gaur passed away here on Wednesday. He was 89. He breathed his last at a private hospital, where he was admitted for past 15 days. Gaur started his career as a minion at a liquor shop and reached to the top post of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2004.
Babulal Gaur was elected first to the State assembly in 1974. Gaur holds the record for ten assembly wins. His life was no less than a fairy-tale where he started as an employee at a liquor shop, kalari as he himself used to call it and ended up as Chief Minister in Hindi heartland in 2004. Born in Pratapgarh’s Naugeer village on June 2, 1930 as Baburam Yadav, he was renamed as Baburam Gaur by his school teacher due to his excessive attention to studies.
Gaur in his youth used to work at a cloth mill also. His father Ramprasad had won a dangal (Wrestling competition) in his village and the Britishers have offered him a job in liquor company in Bhopal. People started calling him Babulal Gaur when he reached Madhya Pradesh at an early age and started working at a liquor shop. He then got in touch with RSS pracharaks who asked him to shun this immoral trade which Gaur agreed to. He returned to his village tried hands on farming but could not and decided to return to Bhopal.
He then turned to social work in co-operation with RSS volunteers. Hailing from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Gaur found a job with Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) as a wage labourer and soon was engaged in trade union which helped her popularity grow by leaps and bounds.
After getting elected to MP assembly as an independent in 1974, Gaur later won on Jan Sangh ticket in 1977. He first time became a minister in Sunderlal Patwa government 1990-1992 and served as a minister of Local Administration, Law and Legislative Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Public Relations, Urban Welfare, Housing (Urban) & Rehabilitation and Bhopal Gas Relief and Rehabilitation.