He rose to prominence in the area after the murder of the student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad in 1997, who died whilst campaigning against Shahabuddin.
[10] Yadav contested the Darauli seat in the Bihar Legislative Assembly election of 1990 as an Indian People's Front candidate.
[11] He won the Darauli seat in the 1995 election, standing as a CPI(ML) Liberation candidate.
[citation needed] Yadav was fielded by CPI(ML) as its candidate in the Siwan Lok Sabha seat in the 1999 Indian general election.
[19][20] Yadav was fielded by CPI(ML) Liberation as its candidate in Siwan in the 2014 Indian general election.