Union Minister & LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan passes away in Delhi at age 74

Union Consumer Affairs Minister and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan has passed away at a hospital in the national capital on Thursday. His son and LJP national president Chirag Paswan made this announcement on Twitter. Since the last few weeks, the veteran political leader hailing from Bihar had been hospitalized. He underwent heart surgery on October 4.

This sudden development comes ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls wherein LJP decided to go solo, citing ideological differences with JD(U). After the resignation of SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Paswan was the only remaining non-BJP Cabinet Minister. He was currently a member of the Rajya Sabha after winning the election unopposed on June 28, 2019. 

Illustrious career

Born on July 5, 1946, Paswan completed a Masters' and a law degree besides passing the Bihar civil service exam. However, he chose to join politics and was elected to the Bihar Assembly in 1969 as a Samyukta Socialist Party candidate. He was one of the prominent politicians who was jailed during the Emergency. Since then, Paswan was a part of various parties including the Janata Party and Janata Dal.

After the Janata Dal split into two factions, he along with some other members formed the LJP in November 2000. From 1977 onwards, he was continuously elected to the Lok Sabha barring for 1984 and 2009. He served as a Union Minister in the National Front governments (1989-90 and 1996-98), the Atal Bihar Vajpayee-led NDA government (1999-2002), the UPA government (2004-2009) and the Narendra Modi-led government (2014-2020).