He lost 1980 Bihar vidhan sabha election as member of Charan Singh faction from Chenari constituency.

[3] Paswan was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India, in 1989 and 1991 as a Janata Dal candidate from Sasaram constituency, defeating Meira Kumar of the Indian National Congress party on both occasions.

[4] 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.

[5] He defected to the BJP in 2014 from Janata Dal (United) after alleging party leader Nitish Kumar was acting in an autocratic manner.