A leader of the scheduled castes from Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan is one of the most-promising politicians of India. He was elected to the Bihar State Assembly in 1969 as a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party. Initially, he was associated with the Naxalite movement.
In 1970, he was sentenced to seven months imprisonment in Bhagalpur jail on account of his anti-government activities. He was arrested during the early phase of Emergency in 1975 and was detained in jail. In the 1977 elections, he won the parliamentary seat for the Janata Party and since then, he has been a member of the Lok Sabha except for the period from 1984 to 1989.
He became a minister for Labour and Welfare in the VP. Singh Government. He was able to fulfill the long standing Dalit demand that Ambedkar’s portrait be placed in the main hall of the Parliament. In 1996, he was given the portfolio of Railway Ministry and was able to regularise the position of thousands of temporary sweepers in the railways.