Vinayak Prasad Yadav was jailed several times for his activities as a part of the Quit India Movement in 1942. He was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly of Bihar for the periods 1967-1968 and 1972–1974, as well as being elected in 1985 and 1990. He served for some time as a minister in the Government of Bihar.[2]
Following the killing of Jagdeo Prasad by police at Kurtha in 1974 Yadav, who was then a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party, resigned from the Bihar Legislative Assembly in protest.[3]
Yadav also served one term as a Member of Parliament, being elected to the Sixth Lok Sabha from the Saharsa constituency in Bihar for the period 1977 to 1979.[2] He was among 27 MPs who left the Janata Party parliamentary group in July 1979 in protest at that party's acceptance of associates who were involved with the right-wing Hindutva organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. All those among the 27 who came from Bihar were supporters of Karpoori Thakur.[4]
Outside politics, Yadav was a lawyer. He died, aged 74, at Kaushalipatti, Bihar on 7 January 2002.[2]