Background
Ashok Mehta was born in Bhavnagar on 24 October 1911.
Ashok Mehta was born in Bhavnagar on 24 October 1911.
Mehta was active participant during the Quit India movement and was arrested by the British. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment five times. After India"s independence, helped organize trade unions in Bombay and was one of the founders of INTUC. He also served as Mayor of Bombay city from 1946 to 1947.
Asoka Mehta became new party"s general secretary.
He was Praja Socialist Party"s president during 1959-1963. In 1963, he served as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
He joined Indian National Congress in 1964, after his expulsion from Praja Socialist Party. He was later part of Congress (O), after Congress split in 1969, the faction Congress (I) led by Indira Gandhi.
He was elected third time for 4th Lok Sabha from Bhandara (Lok Sabha constituency).
He was arrested during the emergency on 26 June 1975 and detained in Rohtak Jail, Haryana. In 1977 he was the Chairman of Ashok Mehta Committee under Janta Government.
He helped organize the socialist wing of the Indian National Congress, along with Jaya Prakash Narayan, and was heavily involved in the politics and government of the city of Bombay. Mehta retired from active politics in the early 1950s, and wrote several books on his experiences, on India"s freedom struggle and the importance of socialist reforms.
He was a founding member of the first Governing Body of National Council of Applied Economic Research, the in New Delhi, India’s first independent economic policy institute established in 1956. He was member of 1st and 2nd Lok sabha during 1954-1957 and 1957-1962. He was member of Rajya sabha during 3-4-1966 till 26-2-1967.