Ram Vilas Paswan passes away
New Delhi, Oct 08: Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan passed away today. His son Chirag Paswan confirmed this in an emotional tweet.
He had recently undergone heart surgery.
Paswan was born on July 5, 1946 at Khagaria district of Bihar. After primary education, he did his Bachelor of Laws and also a Master of Arts degree. He was selected as DSPin Bihar police.
He entered politics in 1969 by winning the Legislative Assembly from United Socialist Party from the reserved constituency.
Under Jayaprakash Narayan, he became the general secretary of Lok Dal. A prominent leader of Anti Emergency campaign, he was imprisoned and after release won the 1977 Parliament election.
Paswan established Dalit Sena in 1983.
In VP Singh government (1989) he was appointed Union Minister of Labor and Welfare. In 1996 he became the Railway Minister. In the Vajpayee government he served as the Communications minister and also held the portfolio of Coal.
He formed Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) in 2000. He then joined UPA 1 and held the Chemical and Fertilizers and also Steel portfolio.
He won the election in 2014 and again in 2019.
In Modi 2.0 ministry, Paswan held the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution portfolio.
He was part of all the national coalitions (United Front, NDP and UPA).
