He was born in a small village of Gopalganj district, Sareya Akhteryar, in a humble farm family.

[3] Ghafoor was a part of the famous Young Turks of Bihar Congress during the independence movement along with Bindeshwari Dubey, Bhagwat Jha Azad, Chandrashekhar Singh, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Kedar Pandey all future chief ministers and Sitaram Kesri, future national president of Indian National Congress.

[citation needed] Abdul Ghafoor was Chief Minister of Bihar from 2 July 1973 to 11 April 1975.

He was elected to Lok Sabha twice in years 1984 and 1996 on Congress and Samata Party (Uday Mandal is current president)[5] tickets from Siwan and Gopalganj Parliamentary constituencies respectively.

[citation needed] His political legacy is being carried forward by Asif Ghafoor, his grandson.