Ram Vilas Paswan’s MP brother Ramchandra dies at 57

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and leader of Opposition in Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav also condoled Ramchandra’s death.

LJP MP and Ramchandra’ s nephew Chirag Paswan announced that the body will be taken to the LJP office in Patna on Monday for people to pay their respects following which, it will be cremated around 4 pm.

Ramchandra was a four-time Lok Sabha MP. Since his first Lok Sabha contest in 1999, he lost just once in 2009, when Ram Vilas also lost due to the Nitish Kumar wave. He also served on several parliamentary committees including the standing committee on urban and rural development and also home affairs.

Preferring to stand by Ram Vilas’s side throughout his career, Ramchandra took to assisting the elder brother in politics just after finishing high school. When Ram Vilas floated the Lok Janshakti Party, the political fortunes of the family changed. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ram Vilas’s younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras (Hajipur), Ramchandra and son Chirag Paswan (Jamui) clinched victories.

Ramchandra was an avid supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the 2019 polls, he defeated Congress’ Ashok Ram and would often tell voters to “criticise him as much as they can but vote for him in name of PM Narendra Modi”. The camaraderie between brothers Ram Vilas and Ramchandra has always been a talking point in political circles. Announcing Ramchandra’s demise, Ram Vilas addressed him as his “dearest brother”. Several times, Ram Vilas fondly said Ramchandra always stood by him like “Laskhman”.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to express his condolences. “Shri Ram Chandra Paswan Ji worked tirelessly for the poor and downtrodden. At every forum he spoke unequivocally for the rights of farmers and youngsters. His social service efforts were noteworthy…” he wrote.