Parliament from Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1986. Yadav won the Badaun seat in the 1989 general election under the Janata Dal party, with INC's Ram Naresh Yadav being the runner-up. In an election dominated by the Bofors scandal, INC failed to form the government despite being the single largest party. Yadav emerged as one of the major players of the left-wing opposition coalition supporting V. P. Singh as the prime ministerial candidate, with external support from BJP. He obtained his first Central government cabinet position as Minister of Textiles in the V. P. Singh ministry He was one of the most powerful members of the cabinet and exerted pressure on V. P. Singh to implement the Mandal Commission report on reservations for OBCs in 1990, which led to widespread protests and brought Caste politics to the forefront. He won Madhepura seat for Janata Dal in the 1991 general election, with the Jharkhand Party's Anand Mohan finishing in second place. He retained the seat in 1996 general election defeating the Samata Party's Anand Mandal. In the 1998 general election following the downfall of the I. K. Gujral government, he lost the Madhepura seat to Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had split from Janata Dal to form Rashtriya Janata Dal. He contested the 1999 general election from Madhepura against Lalu Prasad again and won this time. Lalu's popularity had declined due to his implication with the Fodder Scam and the contest was eagerly watched for what its outcome would say of the electoral preferences of Yadav community. The election was won by the BJP led National Democratic Alliance. The Janata Dal faction led by J H Patel lent support for BJP, a move which was opposed by H. D. Deve Gowda, who wanted Janata Dal to be equidistant from both BJP and Congress. Deve Gowda split from Janata Dal to form Janata Dal (Secular); the remainder of the party led by Sharad Yadav would come to be called as Janata Dal (United). Yadav's faction merged with Lok Shakti and Samata Party to officially become Janata Dal (United) in 2003. Yadav became the first president of JDU and remained in the position till 2016. In the Vajpayee led government, Yadav got a cabinet seat as Minister of Civil Aviation, a position which be held from 13 October 1999 – 1 September 2001. His performance as Aviation minister was criticised for failure