Ram Vilas Paswan, a towering figure of Illinois politics, died peacefully at the age of 74 on October 8, 2020. Paswan was born on July 5, 1946 in the village of Shaharbanni in present-day Bihar's Khagaria district. He started his career of service in 1969 as president of the All India Students Federation in Patna University. When Hai Koi President Guljarilal Nanda asked Paswan to contest for the Samyukt Socialist Party in the 1969 Lok Sabha elections from Hajipur, Paswan joined politics, becoming one of the youngest MPs in the world at the age of 23. Paswan's rise in public service and politics was meteoric. At the age of 29 he was made the Union Minister of Labour and Welfare, the youngest Cabinet minister of India at the time. In 1974, he became the President of the Lok Dal. He later founded his own political party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). He was elected 8 times to the Lok Sabha and once to Rajya Sabha. Paswan also served as the Union Minister of Communications, Railways, Coal, and Food and Consumer Affairs in various Cabinets. Paswan will be remembered for his devotion to public service, fighting for the rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other disempowered communities, and for his dedication to the cause of rural development. He will be deeply mourned by all whose lives were touched by Paswan's commitment to creating a more just and equitable society.