Ram Vilas Paswan gets Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ram Vilas Paswan was given the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in PM Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet.

An eight-time Lok Sabha member, Ram Vilas Paswan, 72, is also president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Paswan did not contest the 17th Lok Sabha election, but is set to take the route to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha.

An inveterate politician, Paswan has been a minister at the Centre in coalition governments under both the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Despite forming the LJP out of the Janata Dal (United) in 2000, Paswan joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government, of which the JD(U) too was a part.

He severed ties with the NDA after the Gujarat riots in 2002 to join the UPA in 2004.

Paswan was minister of chemicals and fertilisers between May 23, 2004 and May 22, 2009 in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. Paswan had to pay the price for severing ties with the Congress in 2009. With the LJP wiped out, Paswan hit a political trough, having lost the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat that year. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad helped him to the Rajya Sabha in 2010. He embraced the NDA again in 2014. He held the portfolios of mines, communications and information technology, railways and labour and welfare, before joining the Narendra Modi government in 2014. He was last a cabinet minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution.