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The former civil aviation minister in the NDA govt lost the Bhagalpur seat to RJD's Shaliesh Kumar in the 2014 general elections.
A diploma holder in Engineering from Patna and Delhi, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was elected from Kishanganj, Bihar, to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 and was made Minister of State, holding various portfolios such as food processing industries, youth affairs and sports, and human resource development at different times.
He was given independent charge of the Ministry of Coal in 2001 and was elevated to the rank of a Cabinet Minister with the Civil Aviation portfolio in September 2001, thereby becoming the youngest Cabinet Minister ever in the Government of India. He was only 32. Later he held the Textiles portfolio as Cabinet Minister from 2003 to 2004. He is often referred to as 'The Original Youth leader'.
Though he lost the 2004 general elections, he re-entered the Lok Sabha in November 2006 in a by-election, winning the vacant seat of Bhagalpur in Bihar. He entered the 15th Lok Sabha again from Bhagalpur in 2009. He contested the Lok Sabha election in 2014 from Bhagalpur again but lost to Shailesh Kumar of the RJD.
