Raju Sharma (28 July 1964 - September 11th, 2025) was a German politician ofthe Left party who was a member of theseventeenth Bundestag.
Sharma was born on 28 July 1964 in Hamburg to a father ofIndian (Hindu) origin and a German mother. Both his parents died early in his life. After hisAbitur in 1983, he received legal training in Hamburg andBombay and practiced law. He started being politically active in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting thePeace movement as a member of theSDAJ (Socialist German Workers Youth), theGerman Communist Party and itsstudent society, theMarxistischer Studentenbund Spartakus [de] before joining theSocial Democratic Party in 1992. He stayed there until he joined theLabour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative in 2005 because he disagreed withGerman involvement in other wars. That party later merged into The Left. In 2009, he became his party's spokesman on religious policy after being elected into theBundestag.[1]
In an interview in 2012, he empathised that the Left "does not hate churches", referring to the controversial question ofstate atheism in communist states and him engaging with politics (leaning) in that direction.[2]
He is married and has a daughter and a son.[1]