Anerood Jugnauth

His grandfather had migrated to Mauritius from the Ballia District of indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the 1870s.

He had his primary education at Palma Primary School and his secondary education at Regent College.

He taught for some time at New Eton College and later worked as a clerk in the Poor Law Department for some time before being transferred to the Judicial Department.

Sir Anerood Jugnauth, GCSK, PV, (29 March 1930 – 3 June 2021) was a Mauritian statesman, politician and barrister who served both as President and Prime Minister of Mauritius.

He was Member of Parliament for Piton & Riviere Du Rempart.

In 1951, he left Mauritius for the UK to study law at the Lincoln's Inn, and became a lawyer in 1954.

In 1957, Jugnauth was elected President of Palma Village Council.

Whilst serving as an IFB member of Legislative Council he was also elected as member of the Municipal Council of Vacoas-Phoenix.

Jugnauth was elected for the first time to the Legislative Council in Constituency No. 14 of Riviere du Rempart at a time when there were 40 Constituencies in the island in October 1963 and was candidate of the Independent Forward Bloc (IFB).

In 1964, he was one of the founders of All Mauritius Hindu Congress but continued to serve in Seewoosagur Ramgoolam's government as State Minister for Development from 1965 to 1966.

Jugnauth was a cabinet minister during the leadership of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam from 1965 up to 1969.

He took part in the London Constitutional Conference on Mauritius, also commonly known as the 1965 Lancaster Conference.

He was then promoted to Minister of Labour in November 1966.

He resigned from office in April 1967, joined the Civil Service as Magistrate, and did not take part in the August 1967 General Elections.

By re-establishing its former alliance, which it had since 1969 with the PMSD, Ramgoolam managed to stay in power.

The Labour-PMSD-CAM alliance occupied 36 seats with a weak majority of only 2 seats, despite CAM's leader Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed's failure to be re-elected.

In 1970, he moved out and went to the newly created political party of the Mauritian Militant Movement, where he eventually became its leader in 1982.

In 1970 he joined the MMM and became the party's president.

Under Jugnauth's leadership, his party/alliances won 5 general parliamentary elections in a row in 1976, 1982, 1983, 1987, and 1991.

He then led the MMM in its first electoral campaign and was presented as prime minister in 1976.

The main contenders of the 1976 elections were the Independence Party (alliance of Mauritian Labor Party and the CAM), PMSD, UDM, IFB and the relatively new MMM led by Paul Bérenger and Jugnauth himself.

Despite receiving most of the votes (38.64%) the MMM only secured 34 seats, two short of an absolute majority.

The Independence Party scored 37.90% of votes and 28 seats, whilst the PMSD received 16.20% of the votes and 8 seats.

A central figure of Mauritian politics in the 1980s and 1990s, he was Leader of the Opposition from 1976 to 1982.

Jugnauth was made Queen's Counsel in 1980 and was made a member of the Privy Council in 1983.

He served four consecutive terms as prime minister from 1982 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2003.

The MMM won but could not govern due to a hung parliament and Jugnauth became Leader of the Opposition up to 1982 where the MMM-PSM alliance won all the seats.

Jugnauth thus served as Leader of the Opposition until the following general elections in 1982.

He created his own political party called Militant Socialist Movement in 1983 and was once more elected.

Jugnauth founded the Militant Socialist Movement party in 1983.

He was honoured with Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards for his continued support for India's causes and concerns and for strengthening India's relationship with Mauritius.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 when Mauritius was still one of the Queen's realms.

Anerood Jugnauth was born in Palma, Mauritius in a Bhojpuri speaking Hindu Bihari Indo-Mauritian family belonging to the Yadav community and was brought up there.

He became prime minister up to 1995.

His party remained in power up to 1995.

He was appointed again as prime minister in 2000 and finally as President in 2003.

He was then elected as President from 2003 to 2012.

Following his party's victory in the 2014 general elections, he served his sixth and final term as prime minister, becoming the nation's longest serving prime minister with more than 18 years of tenure, overtaking Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who held the office for 14 years.

Following his tenure as President, Jugnauth led an alliance known as "L'Alliance LEPEP" which won the 2014 general elections.

He resigned in January 2017 and was succeeded by his son Pravind Jugnauth as prime minister.