NEW DELHI: Two-time Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, considered the fountainhead of OBC politics in Bihar, has been named for the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna posthumously, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said on Tuesday, the eve of his birth centenary.

Thakur, who passed away in 1988, was the first non-Congress socialist leader who became chief minister twice -- first for seven months in December 1970 and later for two years in 1977.

Thakur, known affectionately as ‘Jan Nayak’, is the 49th recipient of the country’s highest civilian award. It was last conferred on late President Pranab Mukherjee in 2019.

Born on January 24, 1924 in Nai samaj (barber society), Thakur is credited in Bihar politics for enforcing total prohibition in 1970. The village he was born in Samistupur district was renamed as Karpuri Gram.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hailed the announcement “fulfilment of an age-old demand” by JD(U). However, ally RJD called the move BJP’s “political gimmick”.