Chirag Paswan, the chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), may have started his career as a Bollywood actor but quickly adapted to the world of politics around 10 years ago. His political journey started with the mentorship of his father and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, but the young leader has come into his own in Bihar politics since the passing of Paswan Sr in 2020.
In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, Chirag Paswan was given five seats in Bihar in the NDA seat-sharing agreement and in a significant feat has won all five. Paswan quietly and efficiently planned his party’s campaign while the political noise favoured RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
Paswan won the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, where he defeated the nearest RJD rival by over 1.70 lakh votes. Paswan polled 6.14 lakh votes, while his nearest rival Shiv Chandra Ram got 4.44 lakh votes.
Paswan gave up Jamui, from where he was enjoying a second consecutive term, to contest from Hajipur, represented by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan eight times.
In 2019, the seat was won by the late leader’s younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras, who had split the LJP in 2021, but resigned from the Union cabinet recently when the BJP announced that it would back his nephew.
Chirag Paswan made his acting debut with the 2011 film ‘Miley Naa Miley Hum‘ opposite Kangana Ranaut, Neeru Bajwa and Sagarika Ghatge. The film did not do well at the box office and Chirag started becoming involved with party work.
“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,” Chirag Paswan had told news agency PTI in a 2014 interview.
His first election win came in Jamui seat in Bihar in which he defeated nearest rival Sudhansu Shekhar Bhaskar of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The demise of Ram Vilas Paswan in 2020 put the onus of keeping the party together on the shoulders of Chirag Paswan. While the party, and the family, eventually did split in 2021, Chirag Paswan managed to be the BJP’s first choice for an alliance.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, Chirag Paswan had virtually ruled out a rapprochement with uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras and cousin Prince Raj, squarely blaming them for the split in the party founded by his late father.
The seat-sharing deal between Chirag Paswan and the BJP had left Paras high and dry and he reacted by resigning from the Union cabinet and declaring that he will seek re-election from Hajipur.
BJP leaders have been maintaining that they would like the two factions, the one headed by Chirag Paswan and the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party of Paras and Prince Raj, to come together. However, when Chirag Paswan was asked about the same, he had replied, “It is for him (Paras) to decide. After my father’s death, being the eldest member of the family, it was his responsibility to take everybody along.”
With each seat now counting for the NDA, it remains to be seen what kind of role Chirag Paswan plays in government formation at the Centre.
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