• JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the eighth time in a ceremony at Raj Bhawan in Patna.

• RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav was administered the oath of office as deputy chief minister.

• In the state Assembly, which has an effective strength of 243, requiring 122 MLAs for a majority, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has the highest number of 79 MLAs followed by the BJP (77) and the Janata Dal (United) with 44.

• Nitish Kumar broke ranks with the BJP-led NDA coalition on August 9 to stake claim as head of the rival ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) to be chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time.

• Kumar, 71, who earlier submitted his resignation as the chief minister heading the NDA coalition, said he submitted a list of 164 MLAs to governor Phagu Chauhan.

• The effective strength of the state Assembly is 243 and the magic figure is 122.

• Supporting the claim are the JD(U) which itself has 46 MLAs (45 party MLAs and 1 Independent) and the RJD which has 79 legislators. The Congress which has 19 while the CPI(ML) has 12 MLAs, CPI  2 and CPI(M) another 2 have also given him letters of support. The HAM party with 4 MLAs has also thrown in its lot with Kumar.

Nitish Kumar back in Mahagathbandhan

• Born on March 1, 1951 in Bakhtiyarpur, a nondescript town on the outskirts of Patna, to an Ayurvedic practitioner-cum-freedom fighter father, Kumar is an electrical engineer by training.

• During his days at the Bihar Engineering College, now known as NIT, Patna, he became active in student politics and got associated with the Jayprakash Narayan’s movement in the 1970s, which introduced him to many of his future associates, including Lalu Prasad and Sushil Kumar Modi.

• His first electoral success came in the 1985 Assembly elections, which the Congress swept though he managed to win the Harnaut seat for Lok Dal. Five years later, he moved to Delhi as an MP.

• After another half a decade, when the Mandal wave was at its peak, Kumar sided with George Fernandes to float the Samata Party, which would later morph into the JD(U) and share power with BJP at the Centre.

• A JD(U)-BJP combine tried to end the long reign in Bihar of rival erstwhile socialist Lalu Prasad’s RJD, and in March 2000, he was elected chief minister of the state for the first time. However, this government was short-lived as the NDA did not have the numbers and had to make way for the RJD.

• Kumar then joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet and proved to be a good administrator in his new role as railway minister, introducing computerised railway reservation among other initiatives.

• He was elected chief minister again in 2005 and this time he had the numbers to continue.

• Kumar brought in measures like free bicycles and school uniforms for school-going girls, which won him much adulation and the exuberant public mood saw him returning to power in 2010, leading the JD(U)-BJP coalition with a landslide victory in assembly polls.

• The period, however, also saw the end of the Atal-Advani era in BJP. Kumar deserted the NDA for the first time in 2013 after Narendra Modi became the coalition's prime ministerial candidate.

• He survived in power as the JD(U) was formidably placed in the Assembly, but stepped down in 2014, owning moral responsibility for the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, wherein it returned with a dismal tally of just two seats.

• In less than a year, he was back as chief minister, elbowing out his rebellious protege Jitan Ram Manjhi with ample support from the RJD and the Congress.

• The Grand Alliance that came into being with JD(U), Congress and RJD coming together, won the 2015 Assembly polls, but came apart in just two years.

• In 2017, he did a volte face to rejoin the NDA, leaving the ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

• His tie-up with the BJP proved to be electorally successful in 2020 Assembly polls. However, the JD(U) could win under 45 seats in the 243-strong House.

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