Two-time Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur, who has been awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously, was a freedom fighter and had quit graduate studies to join Quit India Movement, during which he was jailed. Popularly known as 'Jan Nayak' (People's Hero), Thakur was born to a marginal farmer and became Bihar's first non-Congress CM. He championed the causes of poor and backward classes.