From zero to hero: The rise of Chirag Paswan
Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party has been sworn in as a member of the new Union cabinet.Chirag Paswan, the representative of the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency, secured a ministerial position in Modi's 3.0 cabinet. It is a remarkable turnaround for Paswan, once an aspiring movie star, from a potential political non-entity to a Union minister.
The Hajipur seat holds special significance for Paswan given it was represented by his father, the late Ram Vilas Paswan, who founded the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in year 2000.Chirag Paswan's achievement is particularly notable given the previous divisions within his party, led by his uncle Pashupati Paras, which resulted in the loss of the party's official symbol. This forced Paswan, 41, to float a new political outfit, Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas Paswan), which won all five seats it contested in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls—Hajipur, Jamui, Khagaria, Samastipur and Vaishali.Chirag Paswan's political journey began in 2012 when he joined the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Two years later, in 2014, he contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Jamui constituency in Bihar.This seat holds historical significance for Paswan, as his father represented it eight times since his first victory in 1977. During his tenure as an MP, he served on several parliamentary committees and held the position of chairman of LJP's Central Parliamentary Board.In 2019, he was re-elected from the Jamui constituency and later that year, he was elected as the national president of the LJP.Born in 1983, Chirag studied at the National Institute of Open Schooling in Delhi.
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