Who is Harivansh? The newly elected Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha

NDA candidate Harivansh was elected the new Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha on Thursday defeating opposition candidate BK Hariprasad.

Harivansh who is a JD(U) MP from Bihar and a former journalist, received 125 of the 230 votes in the house. He beat Congress MP Hariprasad by 20 votes.

Harivansh was born in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh on June 30, 1956. He completed his MA in Economics and then received a Diploma in Journalism from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

He started his journalism career with Dharamyug, a weekly published by Times of India Group. He worked there for four years, starting in 1977. Later, he joined Ravivar, a Hindi weekly published by ABP Group in 1985 as an Assistant Editor and worked there till 1989.

Harivansh served as Chief Editor of Prabhat Khabar, a Hindi daily from Ranchi twice, starting from 1989 - June 1990 and then from June 1991 to June 2016.  While making the change, he had said that he did not find journalism in metropolitan cities “challenging” enough and would prefer journalism in small towns.

Besides, he has also served as Official Language Officer, Bank of India, Hyderabad and Patna, 1981-84; and as Additional Information Advisor (Joint Secretary), Prime Minister's Office, June 1990-91.

He was elected to Rajya Sabha in April 2014. He is a member of various house committees which include, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Committee on the Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and Select Committee of Rajya Sabha on the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Before being elected as an MP(Member of Parliament) in the Rajya Sabha, he was briefly the political advisor to Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar. Harivansh had quit as editor-in-chief to take up that position, but later joined back when Chandra Shekhar’s government fell after Congress withdrew support in 1991.

After he became an MP and had to adopt a village, he ensured that he picks one that has no political significance and where not even his distant relatives lived.  He eventually chose Bahuaara village in Rohtas.

When he had to use his MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds, he came up with an innovative idea of opening a river study-cum-research centre at Aryabhatta University and for the development of a centre for endangered language at IIT-Patna.

Even though Harivansh always got due attention from Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar, he is known to never take advantage of it.

He has written and edited several books, all of them in Hindi: Jharkhand : (i) Disum Muktigatha Aur Srijan Ke Sapne, 2002, (ii) Johar Jharkhand, 2002, (iii) Jharkhand - Asmita Ke Aayam, 2009, (iv) Jharkhand-Sushasan Ab Bhi Sambhavna Hai, 2009, (v) Jansarokar Ki Patrakarita, 2009, (vi) Santhal Hool-Adivasi Pratirodh Sanskriti, 2009, (vii) Bihar-Raste Ki Talash, 2011, (viii) Biharnama, 2011, (ix) Bihar-Asmita Ke Aayam, 2011, (x) Jharkhand- Samay Aur Sawal, 2012 and (ix) Jharkhand-Sapne Aur Yatharth, 2012.

For his outstanding contribution to Hindi, he was also honoured during the 9th World Hindi Conference held at Johannesburg.

Harivansh permanently resides in Ranchi with his wife and two children.