Ram Vilas Paswan had heart surgery just a few days ago in Delhi.
New Delhi:
Ram Vilas Paswan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet minister and founder of the Lok Janshakti Party, died today in a Delhi hospital where he was recovering from heart surgery. The 74-year-old was in hospital treatment and had to undergo surgery on Saturday “due to the situation that had suddenly arisen,” his son Chirag Paswan tweeted on Saturday.
Tonight, the 37-year-old posted the news of his death.
“Dad … Now you are not in this world but I know that you are always with me wherever you are. I miss you dad,” said his publication, with which he shared a throwback photograph with his father.
पापा …. अब आप इस दुनिया में नहीं हैं लेकिन मुझे पता है आप जहां भी हैं हमेशा मेरे साथ हैं।
I miss you dad … pic.twitter.com/Qc9wF6Jl6Z– युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) October 8, 2020
Interior Ministry officials said the state funeral will be given to Ram Vilas Paswan and that the national flag will fly at half-staff in Delhi and state capitals on Friday as a show of respect.
Twitter was flooded with tributes for the deceased leader. Among the first to tweet were President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Modi, Congressional Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“I am saddened beyond words. There is a void in our nation that may never be filled. The disappearance of Shri Ram Vilas Paswan Ji is a personal loss. I lost a friend, a valued colleague, and someone who was extremely passionate about insuring that every poor person leads a dignified life “, reads the publication of PM Modi.
I am saddened beyond words. There is a void in our nation that may never be filled. The disappearance of Shri Ram Vilas Paswan Ji is a personal loss. I lost a friend, a valued colleague, and someone who was extremely passionate about ensuring that every poor person lives a dignified life. pic.twitter.com/2UUuPBjBrj
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 8, 2020
Ram Vilas Paswan, known as one of the great survivors of Indian politics, has served as a minister in almost every central government formed since 1989 and served six prime ministers, beginning with the cabinet of VP Singh. In PM Modi’s cabinet, he was in charge of the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution portfolios.
Facing the 2004 elections, Sonia Gandhi, with her famous “walk by the side”, succeeded as an ally of the UPA.
A decade later, he returned to the BJP, even though he had severed ties with the party earlier, citing the 2002 riots in Gujarat. In 2014, when Prime Minister Modi, as the BJP prime minister candidate, was seeking new allies, Paswan left Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal to forge an alliance with the BJP.
Paswan, a powerful Dalit leader from Bihar, was among the young leaders, along with Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar, who were inspired and nurtured by the JP movement in the 1970s.
He was imprisoned during the 1975 Emergency and made his way into the record books for the 1977 parliamentary elections, when he won from the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat in Bihar with the highest margin in history.
Last year, Paswan skipped the Lok Sabha polls, passed his Hajipur seat to his younger brother and Bihar minister, Pashupati Kumar Paras, and entered parliament through Rajya Sabha.
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