Union Minister and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan died on
Thursday, days after undergoing a heart surgery at a Delhi hospital. The death
of the 74-year-old leader from Bihar was announced by his lawmaker son Chirag
who tweeted, “Papa, you are not with us anymore.”

“Papa, you are not with us anymore… but wherever you
are, I know you will always be with me… Miss you papa,” 37-year-old
Chirag Paswan tweeted. Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister,
Ram Vilas Paswan had undergone a heart surgery at Delhi’s hospital on Sunday.

“National flag will be flown at half-mast tomorrow in Delhi & capitals of states & UTs where it is regularly flown, & also on day of funeral (of Ram Vilas Paswan) at place where funeral takes place. It has also been decided that state funeral will be accorded,” ANI quoted Union Home Ministry as saying.

Last year, Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Ram Chandra Paswan, had died at the age of 57 following a heart attack.

The leader’s death comes on the eve of Bihar elections and days after his son announced the parting of ways with JD(U), with whom the Lok Janshakti Party had been in an alliance, along with the BJP, the past couple of years. Chirag while divorcing the JD(U), continued to be in alliance with BJP at the Centre.

A politician of more than five decades, Ram Vilas Paswan was one of the country’s most noted Dalit leaders and eight-time Lok Sabha member. In his current Parliament tenure, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha.  

Paswan had been grooming his son the past couple of years to helm the party, the LJP, and had in November last stepped down from the chief’s post after 19 years to make way for him as the new party president.

Born in 1946, Paswan started his career with the Bihar Police after being selected as a DSP after gaining MA and LL.B degrees. But, he soon diverted towards politics to start off on a political journey never to look back.

He was elected an MLA at the age of 23 and later became the general secretary of the Lok Dal. In 1977, he moved on to join the Janata Party and contested and won his first Parliamentary election. The feat he repeated seven more times in 1980, 1989, 1996 and 1998, 1999, 2004, and 2014.

Paswan floated his own party, the LJP, in 2000. Following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Paswan joined the United Progressive Alliance government and was made the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel.

The Dalit leader was elected as a member of the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014 from Hajipur constituency, while his son Chirag Paswan won from Jamui constituency.

Paswan is survived by wife Reena, who is Chirag’s mother, and three daughters from his first marriage.