Nitish Kumar sworn in as Bihar CM for 10th time

• JD(U) president Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a tenth time at a grand ceremony in Patna on November 20.

• Nitish Kumar, along with a 26-member cabinet, was administered the oath of office by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah attended the ceremony.

• The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) returned to power with 202 seats in the 243-member Assembly, with BJP bagging 89, Janata Dal (United) 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) 5 and Rashtriya Lok Morcha 4. The Opposition was reduced to a mere 35 seats. 

• On November 19, Nitish Kumar was chosen as the leader of the NDA legislative party, backed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs and Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha.

• Expectations from the new government are high after the decisive mandate. Kumar’s governance record has centred on roads, law and order, school attendance and targeted welfare schemes. 

• His government recently transferred Rs 10,000 to the accounts of more than 1.3 crore women and promised up to Rs 2 lakh for those presenting viable business proposals.

A political career spanning 50 years

• 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.

• In August 2022, Kumar broke ranks with the BJP-led NDA coalition to stake claim as head of the rival ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) to be Chief Minister of Bihar for the eighth time.

• In January 2024, Kumar decided to end the alliance with RJD and Congress, and joined hands with the BJP-led NDA. He took oath as the CM of the state for a record ninth time on January 28.

• Kumar is among the 10 longest-serving CMs in the country. He has been in power for 19 years.