Union Minister Chirag Paswan and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, who have worked as co-actors in a film in the past, shared a light moment at Parliament today. A video of the two young leaders shows them greeting each other with a 'low five' this morning.
Back in 2011, the two had starred in a movie, Miley Naa Miley Hum. The movie did not do well and Chirag Paswan, still under the shadow of his father, the veteran late Ram Vilas Paswan, turned to politics. Kangana went on to build a successful celluloid career.
Many films and several elections later, the two are colleagues again, not on a film set but in the Parliament. While Chirag Paswan has stepped out of his father's shadow and carved his own identity in politics, Kangana Ranaut has taken a leap in the uncharted waters.
Mr Paswan now leads the LJP (Ram Vilas), a key ally of the BJP that pulled off a stunner in this election by winning all five seats it contested. He is now a cabinet minister in charge of the food processing industries portfolio, earlier handled by his father. A two-time MP from Jamui in Bihar, he now represents the state's Hajipur seat.
Ms Ranaut, on the other hand, is a first-time MP and has been elected from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The actor-politician defeated state minister and heavyweight candidate Vikramaditya Singh by a margin of nearly 75,000 votes in this election. On the cinema front, the national award-winning actor is now promoting her movie Emergency, scheduled to hit the screens on September 6.