The rise of Chirag Paswan: From one-film wonder to Union minister in Modi 3.0

Chirag Paswan, the chief of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP (Ram Vilas), is set to take his father’s legacy forward. The son of the late former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, a stalwart from Bihar, has been inducted into the Cabinet of the Narendra Modi-led third central government.

He took the oath of office, along with over 70 other Council of Ministers, on Sunday (9 June) evening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The 2024 Lok Sabha election results ensured a third term for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the BJP fell short of the majority mark of 272 and became dependent on its NDA partners, including Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United), to return to power.

Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has also played a key role in the formation of the government at the Centre. The Bihar Lok Sabha election results show Chirag has emerged out of the shadows of his father, Ram Vilas Paswan.

Here’s a look at the rise and rise of the new Paswan face of Bihar.

2024 Bihar Lok Sabha election results

The BJP and its ally JD(U) won 12 seats each out of the total 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar. While the saffron party’s vote share was over 20 per cent, Nitish’s party got 18.52 per cent of the total votes.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) was the third largest party in terms of seats, winning all five seats it contested this time. It got a nearly seven per cent vote share.

Chirag Paswan bagged the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat that had been synonymous with his late father. The late Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) founder had represented the seat eight times in Parliament, losing it only twice in 1984 and 2009.

While Chirag polled 615,718 votes, his nearest rival Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Shiv Chandra Ram lost by a margin of over 1.7 lakh votes.

Chirag’s party also won from Vaishali, Samastipur, Jamui and Khagaria.

PM Narendra Modi with Chirag Paswan at a public meeting for the Lok Sabha elections, in Hajipur, on 13 May 2024. PTI File Photo

Another NDA ally, Hindustani Awam Morcha’s (Secular) won the lone Lok Sabha seat it contested in Bihar.

Despite a high-voltage campaign by the INDIA bloc led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar, the Opposition alliance could not bring a complete turnaround in the state. The RJD won four seats and the Congress three.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) or CPI(ML)(L) secured two seats and the remaining one seat was bagged by an Independent candidate.

ALSO READ: Lok Sabha election results 2024: Why BJP’s fate lies in the hands of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Chirag Paswan proves his mettle

These election results have propped up a new Dalit leader in Bihar. It was a battle of prestige for the young Paswan, who has now proved he is the “real” political heir of his father Ram Vilas Paswan.

The young leader is in Delhi for the NDA meeting on Wednesday (5 June) as the bloc returns to power.

#WATCH | Chirag Paswan says, "We contested on 5 seats and won all 5. This is a big win for the Lok Jan Shakti (Ram Vilas). We have met the expectations of the alliance as well as that of the Prime Minister. For this, I express gratitude to the people of Bihar...My Prime Minister… https://t.co/yGFHePsYcJ pic.twitter.com/l8uuhR5qJC

Chirag made his foray into politics over a decade back. In 2011, he starred in the movie Miley Naa Miley Hum opposite Kangana Ranaut, who is also going to the lower house of Parliament after her election from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi on a BJP ticket.

However, it was politics that interested Ram Vilas’ son. “Acting was something that I wanted to do but I was very clear that eventually it would be politics. It was always my final destination. You may call it dynastic or whatever but the fact is politics is what I know best,” he had told news agency PTI in 2014.

Chirag made his Lok Sabha debut from Jamui in 2014, emerging victorious due to his father and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. He retained Jamui in the 2019 general elections.

After Ram Vilas Paswan’s death in 2020, a family feud broke out between Chirag and his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras .

Paras, the younger brother of Ram Vilas Paswan, split the LJP into two in 2021. One faction – LJP (Ram Vilas) – is led by Chirag, while the other – Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) – is headed by Paras.

At the time, Paras took five of the six LJP MPs with him, leaving his nephew’s faction with just one and no MLAs.

In the 2019 polls, the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat was won by Pashupati Paras on an LJP ticket, defeating the RJD candidate by more than two lakh votes. In fact, the undivided LJP had won all six seats it had contested in the last general elections.

After the split, the uncle and nephew engaged in a bitter battle over the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar’s Vaishali district. For both, the fight was about staking a claim to Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy and being a ‘true’ political successor of the late LJP founder.

However, it was not an easy road for Chirag. He had walked out of the BJP-led NDA in 2020 and contested the Bihar Assembly elections that year on his own. In 2021, the BJP sided with Paras in the rift with his nephew, leaving Chirag isolated.

As the Paswan vote rallied behind Chirag, the BJP realised who was the ‘real’ inheritor of Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy.

At six per cent, Paswans make up the largest constituent of the Scheduled Caste population in Bihar.

In March this year, RLJP chief Pashupati Paras resigned as Union minister after the NDA did not give a single seat to his party in the Lok Sabha elections. Instead, the saffron party chose Chirag over his uncle, allotting five seats to the LJP (Ram Vilas).

A senior BJP leader had told ThePrint at the time, “The bottom line is that Paras brings nothing to the table. Chirag does.”

Both Chirag and his uncle were adamant about contesting from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. While Paras had said he would contest from Hajipur, he did not throw his hat in the ring this time.

The Tuesday (4 June) results show Chirag has stepped out of his father’s shadow and made a mark for himself in Bihar’s politics. The victory was sweeter for him as he fought the elections on his own as he could not seek his father’s guidance and his uncle Paras and cousin Prince Raj stayed away from election campaigning, noted Times of India (TOI).

In the run-up to the elections, the LJP (Ram Vilas) chief had told Indian Express that he felt the “onus of carrying forward” his father’s legacy. “To top it all, I have to live up to the expectations of the people of Hajipur, which was almost synonymous with my father for over four decades,” he said.

Chirag has shown he is capable of taking his party to new heights in Bihar.

With inputs from agencies