Lalit Narayan Mishra (January 1, 1923 – August 31, 1975) was railway minister of India from 1973 to 1975. He was brought into politics by the first Chief Minister of Bihar, Bihar Kesari Sri Krishna Sinha when he was made parliamentary secretary at his insistence to the First Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.[1] In 1975, he died in a bomb blast at Samastipur. The probe in his death still remains unresolved.
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He was born on New Year's Day in 1923 at Basanpatti in Saharsa District of Bihar. He did his MA in economics from Patna University in 1948. He was married to Kameshwari Devi and had 2 daughters Bina jha , Meera Jha, & 4 sons, Vijay Kumar Mishra, Dr Vinay Kumar Mishra, Sanjay Mishra, Vikas Mishra
L N Mishra popularly called 'Lalit Babu' is very noted and respected name in the political society of India. Lalit Babu is survived by a long family tree with many noted public figures as his descendant.
His eldest son Vijay Kumar Mishra is a well-known politician in Bihar. Rahul Mishra, Assistant Vice President of Reliance General Insurance, is his eldest grandson. Rishi Mishra, a business professional and aspiring politician and Sidharth Mishra, Head of business development, A4e India are his other grandsons. His younger brother Jagannath Mishra later became chief minister of Bihar. Later on his eldest son Vijay Kumar Mishra represented the Darbhanga during 8th Lok Sabha. His nephew Nitish Mishra is also a politician, currently serving as cabinet minister in the Bihar state government. His nephew Rajiv Mishra is a well known Media/Broadcast professional and founder President of Assosiation of Radio Broadcasters of India (AROI) the Industry representative body of all FM Radio stations of India. Rajiv is currently working as CEO of Lok Sabha TV.
Mishra joined Indian National Congress party and was a member of the first, second Lok Sabha and 5th Lok Sabha.He was the member of Rajya Sabha in 1964 to 1966 then in 1966 to 1972. He held various posts in the party and government. He was Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Labour and Employment (1957–60), Deputy Minister for Home affairs (1964–66), Deputy Finance Minister (1966–67), Minister of State for Defence Production (1967–70). From 1970 till February 4, 1973 he was Minister of Foreign Trade.On 5 February 1973 he was made Cabinet Minister of Railways by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
As a Minister of Foreign Trade, he was one of amongst first to recognize the potential of the current Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh,and appointed him as his adviser at Ministry of Foreign Trade. The Mr. Singh-Mr. Mishra’s first meeting coincidentally happened in an India-US-Chile flight.[2] Mr. Mishra the minister for commerce (then called minister for foreign trade) was on his way to Santiago, Chile, to attend a meeting of the UNCTAD.[2]
As Minister of Railways, he visited Samastipur on 28 August 1975 to declare open Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line. A bomb explosion on the dais, seriously injured him. He was rushed to the railway hospital at Danapur where he died 3 days later. He was murdered at a place for which he did so much of work as railway minister.
The murder case in still being heard in the courts. Indira Gandhi blamed "foreign elements" for the murder, probably referring to the CIA.[3] His brother Jaganath Mishra had said that there was a larger conspiracy to the murder than meets the eye. There was a report published on this by some DGP.[4]
According to Mitrokhin Archive, he did not take any bribes he was a wise and honest man.
| url = http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/18kgb.htm | title = Allegations in Mitrokhin Archives vague: Congress | author = PTI | publisher = Rediff News | date = 2005-09-18 | accessdate = 2009-10-18
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A university, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, MBA institutes, L N Mishra Institute of Economic development and Social Changes, L N Mishra Institute of Business Management in Bihar is named after him. A railway Hospital in Gorakhpur, UP is named after him. The Government of India issued a postage stamp in his memory.