New Delhi : A prominent BJP leader from Bihar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, a strong and persuasive debater on television in defence of his party’s views, is popularly known as Lord Ram’s lawyer.
Coming from an eminent Kayastha family from Patna and a leading advocate, Ravi Shankar Prasad is the lawyer in the Ayodhya Ram temple title suit case. He represents ‘Ram Lalla’, the deity, in the case.
Ravi Shankar Prasad’s father Thakur Prasad was one of the founders of the Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP.
Ravi Shankar Prasad was also the main lawyer arguing the PIL against former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam that led to the jailing of several politicians and officials, including Lalu Prasad.
The lawyer-politician became a Rajya Sabha member in 2000 and was made the minister of state for coal and mines in 2001 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He became the information and broadcasting minister in 2003.
A member of the BJP national executive since 1995, Ravi Shankar Prasad became a national spokesperson of the BJP in 2006.
In 2012, he was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar for a consecutive third term.
He is married to Maya Shankar, a well known historian and professor of history at Patna University, and is the brother of Anuradha Prasad, who owns a TV channel and is married to Rajeev Shukla of the Congress party.