new Delhi. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who has said goodbye to the world after more than half a century of political journey, has been identified as a warrior for the fight for social justice. Paswan, who has been ill for more than a month, breathed his last at a private hospital in Delhi on Thursday. He was 74 years old. The founder of the Lok Janshakti Party, Ram Vilas Paswan, handed over the command of the party to his son Chirag Paswan last year. As the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, he was always active in leading the central government’s free grain distribution scheme in the Corona era, as well as implementing other ambitious schemes of the ministry.
Born on July 5, 1946, in village Shahbanni (Aloli) in Khagaria district of Bihar, Ramvilas Paswan’s journey of electoral politics began in 1969 when he was elected on the joint Socialist Party ticket in Bihar assembly elections.
Ram Vilas Paswan was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in the general elections held in 1977 after the Emergency in the country. Paswan won from Hajipur seat in 1977 by a margin of record votes, for which his name was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Ram Vilas Paswan, who has dominated central politics for more than three decades, was elected to the Lok Sabha nine times and twice as a Rajya Sabha member.
Ram Vilas Paswan became a minister in the governments of both the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He first became the Minister of Labor and Welfare in 1989 in the government headed by then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh. He then became the Railway Minister in 1996 and remained in the post from June 1, 1996 to March 19, 1998. During this time, his immediate Prime Minister H.D. Got a chance to work with Devgowda and Indra Kumar Gujral.
Paswan became the Minister of Communications and Information Technology in 1999 under the NDA government headed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee. This was the first time he had joined the NDA government. He was later given the responsibility of the Ministry of Mines in 2001 in the Bajpai government.
At the same time, Ramvilas Paswan was the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers as well as the Minister of Steel in the government of the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2009 during the UPA tenure.
Then joined the NDA and became the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term in 2014 and he continued in the post during the second term of the Modi government.
Mahavidya Ram Vilas Paswan was identified as a major leader of the Dalit society in the fight for social justice. Paswan had expertise in coalition politics. That is why he has always been at the center of power for the last two and a half decades and he has been a minister in every government, no matter the government.
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