[1] Mahato was born in a Koeri Kushwaha family in 1922 in Haripur village, in Rosera police station area of Darbhanga district of contemporary Bihar province in British India.

He participated in this movement as a student and to escape the colonial police he had to seek refuge in the home of his maternal grandparents.

After working as lawyer for two years, he started his political journey and in 1952, he got the opportunity to contest in Bihar Legislative Assembly elections as a member of Indian National Congress.

He served as state minister for multiple times (as for example in the cabinet led by Binodanand Jha[4]) and got the portfolio of prison affairs, irrigation, power and public works department.

[2] In the commemoration of Mahato, Government of Bihar established a lane in the Sri Krishna Puri locality of Patna named Sahdev Mahto Maarg.