The Lok Janshakti Party is a state political party in the state Bihar, India. It is led by Ram Vilas Paswan. The party was formed in 2000 when Paswan split from Janata Dal (United). The party has considerable following amongst Dalits in Bihar. The 2004 Lok Sabha elections marked a major break-through for the party. It contested the polls in alliance with the Indian National Congress and the RJD and won four Lok Sabha seats. In the United Progressive Alliance-led government formed after the poll, Paswan became the minister of Steel and Fertilizers. In the 2005 Bihar assembly polls the party contested in alliance with the Congress and against the RJD and won 29 assembly seats.^{[citation needed]}

After no group was able to form a coalition government, President's rule was imposed. After a few months Bihar's state assembly was dissolved.^{[citation needed]} The elections returned NDA supported Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister.^{[citation needed]} This has been a major setback for Paswan.^{[citation needed]}

Ram Vilas Paswan (born 5 July 1946) is the president of the Lok Janshakti Party and a Rajya Sabha MP.

Paswan was born to a Dusadh family. He holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts degrees from Kosi College, Khagaria and Patna University.

Paswan was elected to the Bihar state legislative assembly in 1969 as a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party ("United Socialist Party") from a reserved constituency. In 1974, as an ardent follower of Raj Narayan and Jayaprakash Narayan Paswan became the general secretary of the Lok Dal. He was personally close to the prominent leaders of anti-emergency like Raj Narayan, Karpoori Thakur and Satyendra Narayan Sinha.

In 1975, when emergency was proclaimed in India, he was arrested and spent the entire period in jail. On being released in 1977, he became a member of the Janata Party and won election to Parliament for the first time on its ticket. He was re-elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984 from Hajipur constituency. In 1983, he established the Dalit Sena, an organization for Dalit emancipation and welfare.