Biography of Ram Vilas Paswan

RAM VILAS PASWAN

• Ram Vilas Paswan was born in a Dalit family on 5 July 1946 in Shaharbanni, Khagaria district of Bihar to Jamun Paswan and Siya Devi.
•  Paswan holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts degrees from Kosi College, Khagaria and Patna University.

RAM VILAS PASWAN: Career

• This was also the year when Ram Vilas Paswan first became the Union Railway Minister. He continued to hold that post till 1998.
• Thereafter, Ram Vilas 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, Ram Vilas Paswan broke from the Janata Dal, to form the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

RAM VILAS PASWAN: Elections

• Following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Ram Vilas Paswan joined the United Progressive Alliance government and was made the Union Minister in Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel.
• For the 2009 Indian general election Paswan forged an alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav and his Rashtriya Janata Dal, while dumping their erstwhile coalition partner and leader of the United Progressive Alliance, the Indian National Congress from the new alliance.

RAM VILAS PASWAN: Political Career

• Paswan was elected to the Bihar state legislative assembly in 1969 as a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party (“United Socialist Party”) from a reserved constituency.
• In 1975, when emergency was proclaimed in India, Ram Vilas Paswan was arrested and spent the entire period in jail. 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, and he held the world record for winning the election by highest margin.
• Ram Vilas Paswan was re-elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984 from Hajipur constituency. In 1983, he established the Dalit Sena, an organisation for Dalit emancipation and welfare.
• Ram Vilas Paswan was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha in 1989 and was appointed Union Minister of Labour and Welfare in the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government. In 1996, he even led the ruling alliance or Proposition in the Lok Sabha as the Prime Minister was a member of the Rajya Sabha.
• The duo was later joined by Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party and were declared the Fourth Front. Paswan lost the elections from Hajipur to the Janata Dal’s Ram Sundar Das, a former Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time in 33 years.
• His party the Lok Janshakti Party was not able to win any seats in the 15th Lok Sabha, while his coalition partner Yadav and his party too failed to perform well and were reduced to 4 seats.
• Ram Vilas Paswan was elected as member of 16th Lok Sabha after the 2014 Indian general election from Hajipur constituency, while his son Chirag Paswan won from Jamui constituency also in Bihar.
• Ram Vilas Paswan was again given charge of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in May 2014, which continued in Second Modi ministry in 2019.

RIP

• Union Minister and LJP patriarch Ram Vilas Paswan passed away Thursday evening. He was 74. Paswan underwent heart surgery last week and was due to undergo another one in a few days, his son Chirag had told the media. The Union minister was in a critical condition with multiple organ complications.
• A Dalit leader from Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan had been serving as the Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

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