Ram Vilas Paswan

Ram Vilas Paswan (5 July 19468 October 2020) was an Indian politician from Bihar and the Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the first and second Modi ministries.

Paswan was also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, nine-times Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha MP.

Paswan was born in a Dusadh family on 5 July 1946 in Shaharbanni, Khagaria district of Bihar to Jamun Paswan and Siya Devi.

Paswan held Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts degrees from Kosi College, Khagaria and Patna University.

He started his political career as member of Samyukta Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1969.

He had been selected as a DSP in Bihar Police in 1969.

Paswan was elected to the Bihar state legislative assembly in 1969 as a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party ("United Socialist Party") from Alauli, a reserved constituency.

He lost 1972 Vidhan Sabha election from Alauli to Shri Mishri Sada of Congress.

Later, Paswan joined Lok Dal upon its formation in 1974, and became its general secretary.

He opposed the emergency, and was arrested during this period.

In 1974, as an ardent follower of Raj Narain and Jayaprakash Narayan Paswan became the general secretary of the Lok Dal.

He was personally close to the prominent leaders of anti-emergency like Raj Narain, Karpoori Thakur and Satyendra Narayan Sinha.

In 1975, when emergency was proclaimed in India, Paswan was arrested and spent the entire period in jail.

He first entered the Lok Sabha in 1977, as a Janata Party member from Hajipur constituency, and was elected again in 1980, 1989, 1991 (from Rosera), 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.

On being released in 1977, he became a member of the Janata Party and won election to Parliament for the first time on its ticket from Hajipur with a record margin (later broken) of 424,000 and 89.3% votes which is perhaps an all-time record for General Election in India.

When Janata Party split in 1979, he joined Charan Singh's faction.

Paswan was re-elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 from Hajipur constituency as Janata Party (Socialist) candidate.

In 1983, he established the Dalit Sena, an organisation for Dalit emancipation and welfare.

The Dalit Sena was later headed by his brother Ram Chandra Paswan.

Later it was renamed as Scheduled Caste sena in a vein similar to the Scheduled Caste federation established by Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

Paswan lost 1984 Lok Sabha election from Hajipur.

Paswan was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha in 1989 and was appointed Union Minister of Labour and Welfare in the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government.

Former PM Narasimha Rao got a higher percentage of vote in a 1991 bye-poll.

He was elected to Lok Sabha from Rosera (Lok Sabha constituency) in 1991, the only time between 1977 and 2014 when he did not contest from Hajipur.

In 1996, he won again from Hajipur, and he even led the ruling alliance or Proposition in the Lok Sabha as the prime minister was a member of the Rajya Sabha.

This was also the year when Paswan first became the Union Railway Minister.

He continued to hold that post till 1998.

Thereafter, Paswan was the Union Communications Minister from October 1999 to September 2001 when he was shifted to the Coal Ministry, the portfolio he held till April 2002.

In 2000, Paswan formed the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as its president.

In 2000, Paswan broke from the Janata Dal, to form the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

He resigned as minister and left the ruling NDA in 2002 after developing differences with BJP.

Subsequently, in 2004, he joined the ruling United Progressive Alliance government and remained a Union Minister in Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel.

He was posthumously awarded India's third highest civilian award the Padma Bhushan in 2021.

He was known for holding cabinet positions under 7 governments.

He was known as the weatherman of Indian politics.

Following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Paswan joined the United Progressive Alliance government and was made the Union Minister in Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel.

In the February 2005 Bihar State elections, Paswan's party LJP along with the Indian National Congress contested the election.

The result was that no particular party or alliance could form a government by itself.

However, Paswan consistently refused to support either Lalu Prasad Yadav, whom he accused of being extremely corrupt, or the right-wing National Democratic Alliance thereby creating a stalemate.

This stalemate was broken when Nitish Kumar succeeded in persuading 12 members of Paswan's party to defect; to prevent the formation of a government supported by LJP defectors, the Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh dissolved the state legislature and called for fresh elections, keeping Bihar under President's Rule.