BY PRASANTA KU. DASH
Bihar, November 21: Following a historic triumph in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, Nitish Kumar and his Party the Janata Dal (United) were proved instrumental in crafting out futuristic developments of the state.
With a win-win situation taking BJP at hand, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as a whole, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the 40th Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday.
Nitish, with his recent office as the new Bihar CM for the tenth term, has outshined other CMs of the state regarding their signatures in the CMO.
While, Nitish Kumar became 29th CM of Bihar for the first time in 2000 for a meager span of mere 7-day, he succeeded to secure the CMO as the nominated head of the state so far.
He kept going as the 34th-40th Bihar Chief Minister at a stretch, steadily at a definite pace each time. Surpassing the silver jubilee year in serving the Bihar people, he secured the ceremonial chair of the sovereign from other premier parties, keeping it as a thorn-crown for oppositions & even the lawful aspirants, peer to him.
Nitish scripted new Indian History, mostly across Indian polity becoming Chief Minister of Bihar for 7-times consecutively that began in 2000 and yet continues.
Apart from holding the CMO, Nitish proved his potentials being elected as a Parliamentarian for 6 times who also served as Union Minister for 4 times, officiating key ministries. He shared his expertises with the Indian Railways and agricultural eco-system across the nation, while he held the key ministries in the nineties.
The born & broughtup, his early education, career and debut to politics, of a distinguished leader like Nitish Kumar, are all like relative episodes of a dramatic character, who himself orchestrated his own plays on his own scripts.
Nitish Kumar was born on 1 March 1951 at Kalyan Bigha village in Bakhtiarpur village under the Nalanda District, to Parmeshwari Devi and Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, a traditional ayurvedic practitioner.
Basically hailing from an agrarian family he completed primary, secondary and higer secondary studies in Nalanda. Opting technical studies for clicking a job, Nitish earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from Bihar College of Engineering in 1972. He joined the Bihar State Electricity Board then with a small salary. However, his inclination towards the leader fascinated him towards politics.
Nitish who was eagerly waiting for a small slit into active politics, came in contact with socialists and opinion leaders of his locality, after saying goodbye to government job. Later,he was associated with Ram ace leaders Manohar Lohia, S N Sinha, Karpuri Thakur, and V P. Singh.Meanwhile he participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's movement between in 1974 and joined the Janata Party led by Satyendra Narain Sinha.
Nitish’s mission politics came true, when he fought the first election to the state assembly from Harnaut in 1985. Kumar later switched his loyalty to BJP in 1996, after winning his first Lok Sabha seat from Barh constituency.
In the 1998 Parliamentary elections, the Samata Party and Janata Dal, which Nitish was associated with, performed miserably. This made Kumar merge both the parties to form Janata Dal (United).
Following massive stride in the Lok Sabha elections, Nitish was bestowed with the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in 1998–99, during the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Later that year, he rejoined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture while he resumed as Union Minister for Railways in 2001.
In March 2000, Nitish was elected Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time at the behest of the Vajpayee Government in the centre, as a Samata Party winner. However, he resigned within a week as he could not prove his numbers in the house.
7-days in the Bihar CMO though demoralized Nitish for his immaturity in the state politics, it became a pillar of success and a stepping stone to make his stance in the Bihar Assemly more vibrant than ever before.
Facing acute problems and irresistible barriers along his ways out, Nitish resolved them all with his own wit and garnering dominance of his fellow team members.Thus, he kept the CM throne intact for 9 consecutive terms by 2025 October, and secured it again in the November election.
On 20 November 2025 Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the 10th time along with a team of as many 26 Ministers. He is now backed with two Deputy Ministers namely Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, dreaming better governance in Bihar in line with the NDA’s ‘Developed Bihar’ vision & mission.
Now, Nitish Kumar is one of the tallest figures in India’s political landscape to serve Bihar and its people, even though at the age of 74. As of his address to the state during his swearing in ceremony, he is looking forward to uplift Bihar’s allround development to an all-time high altitude during this tenure.
