Chhedi Paswan (born 4 February 1956) is a former member of

16th Lok Sabha Members of the 16th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2014 Indian general election. The elections were conducted in 9 phases from 7 April 2014 to 12 May 2014 by the Election Commission of India. The results of the election were declared on 16 May ...

and a former member of

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the bicameral Bihar Legislature of the state of Bihar in India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is ...

. He represented the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP) from 2014 to 2024. At various points, he has been with Janata Party, then its Charan Singh faction, then the reunited

Janata Dal Janata Dal () was an List of political parties in India, Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha on 11 October 1988—the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Na ...

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009. He is the founder and president o ...

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Othe ...

and

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 22nd chief minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previously held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. He is Bihar's longest ...

's JD(U).

Career

He lost 1980 Bihar vidhan sabha election as member of Charan Singh faction from Chenari constituency. Between 1985 and 1989, he was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Bihar, where he represented the Lok Dal party from the Chenari. He was Secretary General of the Yuva Lok Dal in Bihar between 1987 and 1989. Paswan was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

, in 1989 and 1991 as a

candidate from Sasaram constituency, defeating

Meira Kumar Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief peri ...

of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party on both occasions. He lost the 1996 Lok Sabha election to Muni Lall of the BJP. He also lost Lok Sabha election from Sasaram in 1998 as member of NCP and in 1999 as member of BSP. He was then elected to Bihar Vidhan Sabha (2000-2005) from Chenari as member of Lalu Prasad's RJD. He then joined Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and lost election from Mohania seat in February 2005, and won from there in October 2005 and 2010. He defected to the BJP in 2014 from

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People's Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is a Social democracy, social-democratic and secular List of political parties in India, Indian political party, rooted mainly in East India, eastern and Northeast India, ...

after alleging party leader

was acting in an autocratic manner. He contested the

2014 Lok Sabha election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

and won the Sasaram seat but the victory was set aside by the

Patna High Court The Patna High Court of Judicature at Patna (commonly known as Patna High Court) is the High Courts of India, High Court of the Indian state, state of Bihar. It was established on 3 February 1916 by British colonial government and was later aff ...

on the grounds that his election affidavit did not mention criminal cases pending against him. The

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

stayed the order but Paswan's voting rights were not restored, which prevented him from voting in the 2017 presidential elections.

Personal life

Paswan was born on 4 February 1956 in Sasaram to Ramchandra Paswan and Laxmina Devi. He was awarded a M.A. degree in Labour and Social Welfare from the

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern e ...

. He is married to Premkali Devi. He has three sons and two daughters.

References

1956 births Living people India MPs 1989–1991 India MPs 1991–1996 Lok Sabha members from Bihar People from Sasaram People from Rohtas district India MPs 2014–2019 Janata Dal politicians Lok Dal politicians Samata Party politicians Janata Dal (United) politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians Bahujan Samaj Party politicians from Bihar Patna University alumni India MPs 2019–2024 Bihar MLAs 1985–1990 Bihar MLAs 2000–2005 {{Bihar-BJP-politician-stub