Vyas Deo Sharma

Who is Vyas Deo Sharma?

Vyas Deo Sharma is a Fijian politician of Indian descent. In the House of Representatives he represents the Vuda Indian Communal Constituency, one of 19 reserved for Indo-Fijians.

He won the seat for the Fiji Labour Party in the parliamentary elections of 2001 with almost 80 percent of the vote, taking the seat from the incumbent Vinod Chandra Deo Maharaj who had been elected on the FLP ticket in 1999 but had subsequently defected to the New Labour Unity Party.

In 2003, Sharma was offered the portfolio of Minister for Veterans Affairs, together with 13 other FLP parliamentarians who were offered cabinet positions by the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase but the FLP refused to accept this offer.

A staunch supporter of FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry, he has publicly clashed with fellow-parliamentarian Felix Anthony and others who have questioned Chaudhry's style of leadership. On 30 June 2006, Fiji Village revealed that he had filed a police complaint against Anthony for alleged verbal abuse at the Warwick Hotel in Sigatoka the day before.