Ram Vilas Paswan, the Indian politician from Bihar and the current Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, was born in a scheduled-caste family on 5 July 1946 in Shaharbanni village in Khagaria district of Bihar. He is the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, eight time Lok Sabha member and a former MP of Rajya Sabha.
Paswan started his political career as a member of Samyukta Socialist Party. In 1969, he was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Then he joined newly-formed Lok Dal in 1974 as its general secretary. He made his entry in the Lok Sabha in 1977 as a member of the Janata Party from Hajipur constituency. He again got re-elected to Lok Sabha in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1996 and 1998.
He formed the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as its president in 2000. Later, he joined he ruling United Progressive Alliance government in 2004 while remaining as Union Minister in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel. In the same year, he won the Lok Sabha elections.
After serving as a Rajya Sabha member from 2010 to 2014, he was elected again to the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014 Indian general election from Hajipur constituency.
During the emergency period in 1975, he was arrested and spent the entire period in jail. After he was released from the jail in 1977, he became the member of the Janata Party. He also won the elections of the Parliament for the first time and held the world record for winning the elections by highest margin.
He has been a Union Minister under five different Indian Prime Ministers and is famous for continuously holding on to a cabinet berth in all the Council of Ministers formed since 1996 (as of 2015). He also holds the distinction of being a part of all the national associations (the United Front, the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance), which have led to the formation of the Indian Government from 1996 to 2015.
