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Journalism of Courage
Bihar Politics History: The political prism of Bihar has reflected and refracted shades of almost every ideology since India’s first general elections in 1952.
The state saw three decades of Congress dominance (1952–1990), with its first Chief Minister, Shri Krishna Singh, laying the foundation of modern Bihar. The Congress hegemony was challenged by socialist legend Rammanohar Lohia in 1967. Another leading socialist, Jayaprakash Narayan, led the 1974 Bihar Movement (the JP Movement), heralding the rise of socialist politics. Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar later cemented that legacy, ruling Bihar for 35 years, with the BJP sharing power with Nitish for about 17 of them.
Congress: Shri Babu and beyond
When the history of Congress in Bihar is written, it will likely be divided into two eras: with Shri Krishna Singh and after him. Singh, who also wrote his name as Sinha, served as Pradhan Mantri (Premier) of Bihar province from 1937 to 1939 and 1946 to 1952, and as Chief Minister from 1952 until his death in 1961.
Congress, dominated by upper-caste leadership since the 1930s, retained that hierarchy in power. The rivalry between Shri Krishna Singh (a Bhumihar) and his deputy Anugrah Narayan Singh (a Rajput) was well known, though marked by mutual respect. After the 1957 elections, when Anugrah staked claim to the CM’s post, Shri Krishna Singh told him he would quit politics if he lost. Anugrah assured him it would not come to that — and it didn’t. Shri Babu, as he was fondly called, is said to have wept in Anugrah’s arms before taking oath again as CM, asking his deputy to choose the cabinet.
Beyond such anecdotes, Shri Krishna Singh is remembered as the maker of modern Bihar. He laid the groundwork for industrialisation — setting up 13 industrial units in Begusarai alone and promoting sugar, jute, paper, and cement factories across the state. He also founded several educational and medical institutions, and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) was established during his tenure. Singh was instrumental in securing Dalit entry into the Baba Baidyanath temple in Deoghar (now in Jharkhand). Personally, he lived frugally. Journalist Surendra Kishore recalls that he resisted any attempt to bring his son into politics.
But the Congress failed to sense changing social currents. In 1963, it missed a chance to make OBC leader Bir Chand Patel Chief Minister after Vinodanand Jha’s removal under the Kamraj Plan (to retire ageing leaders). Instead, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, son of Anugrah Narayan Singh, backed KB Sahay as CM, preserving upper-caste hegemony.
In the following decades too, the Congress overlooked OBC leaders like Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Lahtan Choudhary, and Sitaram Kesari, rotating upper-caste Chief Ministers — Jagannath Mishra, Chandra Shekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Bhagwat Jha Azad, Satyendra Narayan Sinha and again Mishra — between 1980 and 1990. Notably, no Congress CM after Shri Krishna Singh completed a full term.
The Socialist arrival and the dawn of OBC politics
Veteran socialist and RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari recalls being at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan in 1965 with his father Ramanand Tiwari and Karpoori Thakur (later CM) when Rammanohar Lohia launched his anti-Congress campaign. Several leaders — including Ramanand Tiwari, Karpoori Thakur, Kapildeo Singh, Shivanand Tiwari and CPI leader Chandra Shekhar Singh — were injured in a police lathicharge.
Lohia had merged the Socialist Party with the Praja Socialist Party to form the Sanyukta Socialist Party (SSP) and gave the slogan: “Sansopa ne baandhi gaanth, pichhda paave sau mein saath” (SSP pledges 60 per cent representation for backward classes). His campaign paid off — Congress lost the 1967 Assembly polls in nine states, including Bihar.
The SSP emerged as the largest partner in the anti-Congress alliance with 68 seats, and Karpoori Thakur was expected to become CM. But Kamakhya Narayan Singh, leader of the smaller Jan Kranti Dal (26 seats), manoeuvred his party’s Mahamaya Prasad Sinha to the top post, with Karpoori reluctantly accepting the deputy’s chair against the wishes of his mentor, Lohia.
This coalition, known as the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD), also ended the political isolation of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). Between 1967 and 1972, Bihar saw seven chief ministers. Satish Prasad Singh became the first OBC CM, albeit for only five days, paving the way for B P Mandal. Others like OBC leader Daroga Prasad Rai, EBC leader Karpoori Thakur, and Dalit leader Bhola Paswan Shastri also had brief stints. It was the first real arrival of socialist politics in Bihar.
JP, Janata, and Karpoori’s quota within quota
In the early 1970s, inspired by Gujarat’s Navnirman Andolan, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) emerged from retirement to lead the students’ movement in Bihar. The JP Movement ultimately led to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposing the Emergency in 1975.
Among the movement’s products were student leaders Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.
By the time Indira Gandhi lifted the Emergency in 1977, her government had become deeply unpopular. The Janata Party, a coalition of non-Congress forces, swept to power — marking a second wave of socialist ascendancy and bringing EBC leader Karpoori Thakur to the CM’s chair in Bihar.
In November 1978, Karpoori implemented the Mungerilal Commission’s recommendations, pioneering the classification of OBCs and EBCs and introducing reservations for women and the poor among upper castes. Of the 26 per cent quota, 12 went to EBCs, eight to OBCs, and three each to women and the poor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 10 per cent EWS quota draws inspiration from Karpoori’s “quota within quota” policy.
The Janata experiment later collapsed, but it again exposed Congress’s inability to read Bihar’s social pulse.
The Mandal era: Lalu Prasad rises
Barely a year after Karpoori Thakur’s death in 1988, V P Singh became Prime Minister on the anti-Bofors wave. As Congress weakened, the 1989 Bhagalpur riots — in which over 800 Muslims and 200 Hindus were killed — pushed Muslim voters towards the Janata Dal.
When Lalu Prasad became Chief Minister in March 1990, he seized the space opened by the clash between Mandal and Kamandal politics. He emerged as the new champion of Muslims and the garib-gurba (poor), marking the third socialist phase in Bihar politics.
Lalu and later Rabri Devi’s rule saw three defining shifts — the Mandalisation, secularisation, and Yadavisation of politics. During the Yadav-centric phase, Lalu began losing support among EBCs and Dalits. His tenure brought social empowerment but also notoriety: 38 caste massacres claimed 380 lives, and kidnappings and robberies eroded law and order. Amid this churn, another JP product, Nitish Kumar, spotted his chance.
The Nitish-NDA era
Nitish Kumar, who co-founded the Samata Party in 1994 as a Janata Dal breakaway, began with modest success — winning only seven seats in 1995. He later reworked his social arithmetic and convinced George Fernandes to join the NDA in 1996.
Though the RJD emerged as the largest party in 2000, the NDA was invited to form the government. Then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee asked Nitish to take charge as CM. Knowing he lacked a majority, Nitish resigned within a week, but his political stature rose sharply. This one move also relegated BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi to the second rung.
Nitish finally became CM in 2005 and, except for a nine-month interlude under Jitan Ram Manjhi, has remained in power since. He layered Bihar’s caste politics with a developmental narrative, reshaping its political grammar.
Nitish is a rare figure in Indian politics — a leader from a community comprising less than three per cent of the population (OBC Kurmis) who has remained CM for nearly two decades, breaking Shri Krishna Singh’s record as Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister.
The coming elections will reveal whether the state is poised for another political landmark.
