Krishna Ballabh Sahay

Sahay was born to an Ambashtha Kayastha Hindu family on 31 December 1898 in Sheikhpura, Bihar^[2]. He was the eldest son of Munshi Ganga Prasad, who served as a Darogha^[2] under the British Raj at Padma Hazaribagh. In 1919, he graduated with first class in B.A. Hons. English from St. Columba's College, Hazaribagh, then affiliated to Calcutta University. He was awarded the Sir Edward Albert Gait's Gold Medal from the then Governor of Bihar and Orissa Edward Albert Gait for his excellence in the English language. His works are kept in Bihar Assembly.

In 1920, Sahay gave up further studies and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Between 1930 and 1934, he was jailed four times for different periods while taking part in the independence movement. During one of these incarcerations, he met his mentor Sri Babu, with whom he would remain a friend for the rest of his life. He was also close to Anugrah Narayan Sinha, another nationalist leader from Bihar.

In 1942 came Gandhi's battle cry of "Do or Die" for the "Quit India Movement". Before this, senior leaders of Bihar, including Rajendra Prasad & Anugrah Narayan Sinha, visited Bihar. While there, they conveyed the conclusions of the "Vardhan Accord" and chartered an action plan for Bihar during the Quit India Movement, in an important meeting at Sadaquat Ashram. Sahay was a notable contributor to this plan. The "Quit India Movement" was launched across India and Sahay led the movement at Hazaribagh. The British Raj ordered the immediate arrest of all its leaders. An order to arrest Sahay was passed by the Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh (Order No.: 132 of 10.08.1942) and the very next day he was jailed. There, along with his associates Rama Nandan Mishra, Yogendra Shukla, Suraj Narayan Singh, Sri Gulab Chand Gupta and Sri Shaligram Singh, Sahay was instrumental in the escape of Jayaprakash Narayan from Hazaribagh Central Jail on 9 November 1942. As a consequence, he was sent to Bhagalpur jail with orders for rigorous imprisonment. ^{[3][better source needed]}

Earlier, when provincial autonomy was granted by the British Raj, Sahay was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1936 and was made a parliamentary secretary in Sri Krishna Singh's ministry in 1937.

Sahay contested the first assembly elections of 1952 from Giridih and won by a comfortable margin to return as the revenue minister to the Government of Bihar in Babu's cabinet. But in 1957, he was defeated in the assembly election from Giridih by Raja Kamakhya Narayan Singh of Padma (Hazaribag). However, K. B. Sahay won the assembly elections of 1962 to enter the Bihar Assembly for the third time. In 1957, during the leadership struggle between Dr. S K Sinha and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, he supported Anugrah Sinha for becoming Chief Minister. Sri Krishna Babu won and again become the Chief Minister with Anugrah Sinha as his deputy.^[4]

In the years that followed, K. Kamaraj , the veteran Congress leader came forward with his "Kamaraj Plan" to strengthen the party. On 19 September 1963, with the announcement of "Kamaraj Plan" came the news of Binodanand Jha being taken as one of the eight Chief Ministers to look after the affairs of Congress Party. Beer Chand Patel threw his hat in the contest for the Chief Minister of Bihar. Sahay who was deputy minister in Jha's cabinet was the other contestant. Satyendra Narayan Sinha, the prominent Education Minister, who was decidedly second-in-command in the Binodanand Jha Cabinet announced his support for Sahay. Patel was no match for Sahay, who polled double the number of votes as Patel. Mr. Sahay was elected from Patna West constituency

On 2 October 1963, the birth anniversary of Gandhi was celebrated in Bihar along with the swearing in ceremony of Sahay as the fourth Chief Minister of Bihar with Satyendra Narayan Sinha again becoming second in command.^[5]

Sahay lost the 1967 elections but won the local body elections in 1974 to enter the Bihar Legislative Council as an MLC. He faced enquiries by the Aiyyar Commission in between but was vindicated. Sahay met with a fatal road accident on 3 June 1974 just after winning the election, on his way back to his native place Hazaribag.

Sahay was a prominent political leader in Bihar during the 20th century and served as the state's fourth Chief Minister. His political career included participation in the Indian independence movement and several years of service in the Bihar government.