Bihar’s Chief Ministers | Nitish Kumar: Journey from early poll losses to becoming longest-serving CM

During this period, engineering graduate-turned-politician Nitish Kumar — once seen as Lalu’s trusted “younger brother” — quietly built his base among his OBC Kurmi community and the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), against the dominance of the Yadavs under Lalu.

Nitish emerged as Lalu’s fiercest rival with a decisive victory in the 2005 Legislative Assembly elections through a winning alliance with the BJP. This partnership would go on to reshape Bihar’s politics and social dynamics for decades.

Early setbacks

Both Nitish and Lalu rose under the mentorship of Karpoori Thakur, the socialist leader who implemented Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations during the Janata Party government in the late 1970s. Born in the Kalyan Bigha village of the Nalanda district in 1951, Nitish entered electoral politics amid the anti-Congress, pro-Janata wave of 1977.

With his father having participated in the Independence movement, Nitish developed an interest in politics early on, engaging with the works of socialist leaders such as Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.

However, he witnessed failures when he first made the plunge into electoral politics, twice losing elections from the Harnaut constituency as a Janata Party candidate to independent candidates. Nitish even contemplated giving up on politics, but a breakthrough came in 1985, when he won Harnaut on a Lok Dal ticket after consolidating adequate resources to fund his campaign.

Later elected to the Lok Sabha from Barh in 1989, Nitish served as Union Minister of State for Agriculture in the V.P. Singh government. He retained Barh in 1991 on a Janata Dal ticket.

Nitish Kumar. (Express archives)

Road to Chief Ministership

Nitish split the party in 1994 to form the Samata Party along with veteran socialist George Fernandes, in a bid to assert himself against Lalu. His faction was later renamed the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). The 2004 elections saw Nitish contest dual seats, losing Barh but winning his home turf of Nalanda. As part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre, he handled the railways, agriculture and some other ministries.

Expressing displeasure at Lalu’s style of governance, Nitish gradually began stepping out of his shadow, but this was not without hurdles. His first stint as Chief Minister lasted for a week in March 2000, when he was sworn in but resigned due to a lack of majority support, paving the way for Rabri Devi’s continuance.

The real turning point arrived with the twin elections of 2005 — the first since Jharkhand was carved out as a separate state in November 2000. It left Bihar with 243 seats in the legislature. In the February 2005 polls, Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the largest party with 75 seats, followed by Nitish’s JD(U) with 55, and the BJP with 37. No coalition secured a majority, leading to President’s Rule.

However, the October 2005 elections proved catastrophic for the RJD. JD(U) surged to 88 seats, the BJP secured 55, while RJD plummeted to third place with 54 seats, and Nitish was sworn in as Chief Minister. He then resigned from the Lok Sabha and entered the Bihar Legislative Council, where he has remained ever since.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar with Lalu Prasad during Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding ceremony in 2018. (Express archives)

Bihar under Nitish

Nitish’s greatest political achievement since November 2005 has been his unyielding hold on the Chief Minister’s chair, sustained through shifting alliances with the BJP and even the RJD. He has become utterly indispensable in Bihar’s power structure.

Part of it has to do with his mobilisation of the Kurmis, a landowning farming community with varying social status across regions. The People of India book series, edited by K.S. Singh, describes them as “progressive farmers” who maximised the benefits of developmental schemes. Kurmis often take on diverse last names such as Patel, Verma, Sachan, Gangwar, Katiyar, Baiswar, Mahto, Prasad, Sinha, Singh, and Shinde.

Kurmis wield significant political influence in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh. In pre-independence Bihar, the Triveni Sangh — a coalition of a Yadav (Jagdev Prasad Yadav), a Kurmi (Shiv Pujan Singh), and a Koeri (Yadunandan Prasad Mehta) — successfully contested the 1937 elections.

In Bihar, Nitish astutely forged an OBC-EBC bloc, augmented by upper-caste support via the BJP (despite his earlier opposition to Hindutva), to ultimately become the longest-serving chief minister of the state since Independence. He was able to break the leadership of the numerically stronger Yadavs in Bihar’s OBC politics, cemented by Chief Ministers B.P. Mandal and Daroga Prasad Rai before Lalu.

Further, Nitish was lauded for focusing on Bihar’s welfare and development, earning the moniker of “Sushashan Babu” for focusing on bringing in good governance. At least in the early years of his government, he was credited for ensuring the basics — building roads, industries and championing girls’ education in a state often seen as the most backward in the country. This was contrasted with charges of a “jungle raj” or anarchy under the RJD.

Nitish extended his party’s tally in the 2010 polls as JD(U) won 115 seats, while the BJP won 81 and the RJD won 22 seats. In June 2013, then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was declared as head of the BJP’s campaign committee before the Lok Sabha elections, and was widely assumed to be the prime ministerial face. Nitish sought to challenge Modi and thus parted ways with the BJP on June 16, 2013.

However, his party could only win two seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls. Taking responsibility, he resigned, installing Jitan Ram Manjhi as successor, and realigned with Lalu to form the Mahagathbandhan or the Grand Alliance. Their “Bihari DNA” campaign tapped into a sentiment of state pride, yielding RJD 80 seats and JD(U) 71, relegating BJP to 53. Nitish was sworn in on February 22, 2015, with Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav (the current CM face of the Opposition) as Deputy Chief Minister.

After years of frequent splits and alliances, Nitish continues to be the CM, at present, in alliance with the BJP.