Sarangdhar Sinha

Sarangdhar Sinha (6 February 1901 – 1985) was an Indian politician. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from the Patna in Bihar as a member of the Indian National Congress.[1]

Sharangdhar belonged to a zamindar family of Repura in Uttar Pradesh.[2] His ancestors shifted to Patna in the 19th century and set up a printing press. He had over two acres of land in the Exhibition Road area. Palatial apartments have come up on it. A noted freedom fighter, he suffered imprisonment four times in connection with non-cooperation movement.

He was a doctorate in English from Calcutta University. He was the third non-judicial vice-chancellor of the Patna University (June 21, 1949 to January 1, 1952).

Sarangdhar Sinha was an M.L.A. (Bihar) between 1936-51. Additionally in Bihar, he was Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Revenue from 1936–51; Chairman of the Jail Reforms Committee, the Hindi Committee, the Harijan Committee, Higher Technological Education Committee, etc. between 1936-39. He also held position as the President of Chamber of Commerce during 1950-51. [3] Further, he represented Indian Universities at the Conference of the Association of the Universities of Commonwealth, New Zealand, 1950 before becoming the first Lok Sabha MP from Patna in 1952.

He won the seat again in 1957. In the third lok sabha elections, he refused to contest the seat in 1962. The Congress MP did not recommend the name of any of his family members for the seat. Instead, he asked the Congress leadership to field a woman — Ramdulari Sinha — despite having a daughter himself. Ramdulari went on to win and become the first woman MP of Patna.[4][5]