In a surprising turn of events, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in Patna. The sudden move has pushed Bihar into a major political shift while ending the tenure of the state’s longest chief minister.Nitish Kumar, who has served as Bihar’s longest-tenured chief minister for more than two decades, informed of his decision to contest Rajya Sabha elections via social media post.
“I seek to become a member of the Rajya Sabha in the elections being held this time. I want to assure you with complete honesty that my relationship with you will continue in the future as well, and my resolve to work together with you to build a developed Bihar will remain steadfast. The new government that will be formed will have my full cooperation and guidance,” the 75-year-old politician wrote on X.For nearly two decades, Nitish has been in power in Bihar through coalitions. And one of the most intriguing paradoxes of Nitish’s long political career is that he governed Bihar for longer than any of his predecessors despite never leading a party that secured an outright majority in the state assembly.
His party, the Janata Dal (United), consistently relied on alliances with larger or equally powerful partners to remain in government.This unusual political equation made Nitish Kumar a master negotiator.Power in Bihar during his tenure depended not merely on electoral strength but on the ability to stitch together coalitions across caste blocs and ideological divides. Nitish Kumar excelled at precisely that. His ability to maintain political relevance even as the relative strength of his party fluctuated turned him into one of the most skilled negotiator of Indian politics.Supporters often describe this as evidence of his political acumen. Critics, however, argue that his survival depended more on opportunistic alliances than on a stable electoral mandate.Within the JD(U), the reaction to his decision has been one of disbelief.
Senior party leader and Bihar’s social welfare minister Madan Sahni publicly questioned whether the move truly reflected Nitish Kumar’s personal choice. “We are stunned to see whatever is happening. It is hard to believe that this could have been Nitish Kumar’s own decision,” news agency PTI quoted Sahni as saying.According to Sahni, Nitish Kumar had long expressed a desire to serve in all three legislative arenas of the democracy: the state assembly, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. His move to the Upper House, therefore, was being presented as the fulfilment of that ambition.But for many within the JD(U), the transition felt less like a voluntary decision and more like the end of an era forced by changing political realities.Outside the party office in Patna, JD(U) workers gathered in anger and disbelief. Police were deployed to prevent supporters from marching toward the chief minister’s residence.Some refused to believe that the leader they had followed for decades would step down so abruptly.For years, even political rivals acknowledged Nitish Kumar’s stature. The late Sushil Kumar Modi, one of the BJP’s most prominent leaders in Bihar, had once described him as “prime minister material.”To many supporters, therefore, his exit from the chief minister’s office feels like a fall from a position once seen as nationally significant.Opposition leaders, however, see the moment differently.Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the opposition and son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, argued that Nitish Kumar’s predicament was the result of his own political decisions.“The BJP has done a Maharashtra in Bihar,” Tejashwi said, referring to controversial power shifts seen in other states. “But Nitish Kumar has only himself to blame. While in alliance, we supported him as chief minister despite having more MLAs, but he chose to walk away on two occasions.”
Entry into politics
Nitish Kumar was born on March 1, 1951, in Bakhtiarpur in Bihar’s Patna district. His father, Ram Lakhan Singh, was an Ayurvedic practitioner and a freedom fighter who had been associated with the Congress during the independence movement.He studied electrical engineering at the Bihar College of Engineering in Patna, now known as the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna. He briefly worked at the Bihar State Electricity Board before turning to politics.Nitish Kumar’s political identity was forged in the turbulence of the 1970s and 1980s.Like many leaders of his generation, he emerged from the socialist movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan during the anti-Emergency agitation. The movement produced a generation of politicians who would dominate north Indian politics for decades.Among them were Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. Both leaders rose within the same political tradition. Both belonged to backward caste communities empowered by the Mandal revolution of the 1990s.Yet their political styles could not have been more different.
Lalu thrived on mass mobilisation, humour and confrontational politics. Nitish preferred administrative detail, negotiation and strategic positioning.The divergence became clearer as Lalu Prasad Yadav consolidated power in Bihar after becoming chief minister in 1990, following the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations by Prime Minister VP Singh.Lalu’s arrest of Lal Krishna Advani during the 1990 Ram Rath Yatra cemented his reputation as a defender of secular politics and a champion of backward caste empowerment.But as Lalu’s popularity grew, Nitish Kumar grew increasingly uneasy with what he saw as the concentration of power within one leader’s personality.In 1995, he finally broke away from the Janata Dal.The split marked the beginning of a long political rivalry that would define Bihar politics for decades.
Experimentation before BJP alliance
After leaving the Janata Dal, Nitish Kumar experimented with several political strategies in his quest to build an alternative to Lalu Prasad Yadav.Along with socialist leader George Fernandes, he founded the Samata Party.In his search for allies, Nitish Kumar briefly explored cooperation with the radical left-wing party CPI(ML) Liberation, which was then an emerging political force in parts of Bihar.The experiment reflected Kumar’s ideological roots in socialist politics. But the attempt soon revealed the limits of ideological alliances in a state where electoral arithmetic was dominated by caste coalitions.
Nitish Kumar eventually concluded that defeating Lalu Prasad Yadav required a broader political alliance.That calculation led him toward the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1996, he contested the Lok Sabha elections as part of an alliance with the BJP.
The creation of JD(U)
One of Nitish Kumar’s most consequential political moves came when he persuaded veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav to unite their factions.The merger created the Janata Dal (United).The new party became the central pillar of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar. At the time, the BJP recognised that its own social base in Bihar remained limited. It was widely perceived as a party dominated by upper castes.Nitish Kumar, by contrast, came from the Kurmi community and had credibility among backward caste voters. As a result, the BJP agreed to allow the JD(U) to contest more seats than the BJP itself in the assembly elections of 2005.The strategy proved decisive.After a fractured verdict earlier that year, a fresh election in November 2005 delivered a comfortable victory for the NDA. Nitish Kumar finally became the chief minister.
The longest-serving CM
Over the course of his political career, Nitish Kumar became the longest-serving chief minister in Bihar’s history, holding the office for more than two decades across multiple terms.Kumar first assumed office as chief minister briefly in March 2000, though that government lasted only a week after he failed to prove a majority in the assembly. His enduring tenure began in November 2005, when the alliance between the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a clear mandate in the assembly elections.From then on, Kumar remained the central figure in Bihar politics, returning to the chief minister’s office multiple times through changing alliances and political realignments. His long tenure spanned dramatically different political phases — from the early push to restore law and order after the 1990s to the later years of coalition bargaining and shifting alliances.Last year in November, Nitish finally took oath as chief minister of Bihar for a record-extending tenth time.
‘Paltu Ram’: Flip-flops that defined Nitish’s career
If governance made Nitish Kumar a respected administrator, his shifting alliances made him one of the most controversial political figures.His first major break with the BJP came in 2013, when Narendra Modi was elevated within the party and widely expected to become its prime ministerial candidate. Nitish Kumar ended his party’s 17-year alliance with the BJP, arguing that the country required inclusive leadership.But the decision proved politically costly.In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the JD(U) suffered a humiliating defeat, winning only two seats in Bihar.Accepting responsibility, Nitish Kumar resigned as chief minister, taking “moral responsibility” for the party’s performance.Yet his political instincts soon resurfaced.Within months, he regained power after installing Jitan Ram Manjhi as chief minister and later replacing him with the support of his former rival Lalu Prasad Yadav.The alliance between the two leaders culminated in the 2015 Mahagathbandhan victory, one of the BJP’s most significant electoral defeats in the Modi era.
But the partnership collapsed in 2017, when Nitish Kumar once again switched sides and returned to the BJP-led NDA.Another shift followed in 2022, when he broke away from the BJP again, only to return to the alliance once more in 2024.The repeated realignments earned him a nickname that became inseparable from his public image: “Paltu Ram.”These flip-flops became one of the defining features of Nitish Kumar’s career.
The ‘Sushasan Babu’ of Bihar
Despite political controversies and shifting alliances, Nitish Kumar built a reputation for governance that earned him the popular nickname ‘Sushasan Babu’, or the man of good governance.When he first assumed office as chief minister in 2005, Bihar faced widespread criticism for poor infrastructure, weak law and order and sluggish economic growth.Nitish’s government focused on improving policing, speeding up criminal trials and expanding road and bridge construction across the state.His administration also launched several social welfare initiatives, including the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana, which provided bicycles to schoolgirls to encourage education. The scheme significantly increased enrolment of girls in secondary schools and became one of the most widely cited symbols of his governance model.Other measures included reservations for women in local bodies and government jobs, as well as welfare programmes targeting extremely backward classes and Mahadalits.The masterstroke came after his government banned liquor in the state. The women voters, since then, have rallied behind Nitish making his party a winner every election.These initiatives also helped change Bihar’s governance narrative and restore a sense of administrative stability after years of turmoil and violence.
A CM who rarely fought assembly elections
Another distinctive aspect of Nitish Kumar’s political career has been his repeated use of the Legislative Council route to remain chief minister.After becoming CM in November 2005, Kumar did not contest an assembly election immediately. Instead, he entered the Bihar Legislative Council as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of the state legislature, allowing him to continue in office without being elected to the assembly.He followed a similar route during subsequent terms, often choosing to remain an MLC rather than contest assembly polls directly. Under the Constitution, a person who is not a member of the legislature can serve as chief minister for six months, within which they must secure membership in either the assembly or the council.Kumar repeatedly used this provision by getting elected or nominated to the Legislative Council, ensuring continuity in office while avoiding the need to contest constituency-level elections.Although he did contest the 2015 Bihar assembly election from the Harnaut seat, winning comfortably, much of his time as chief minister was spent as a member of the legislative council.Supporters say this reflected his role as a statewide leader focused on governance rather than constituency politics. Critics, however, argued that the MLC route allowed him to remain in power while largely avoiding direct electoral contests in the assembly.
The dynasty question
For years, Nitish Kumar distinguished himself from many politicians by criticising “parivaarvaad”, or dynasty politics.He often argued that political leadership should emerge from public service rather than family inheritance.But as his son Nishant Kumar, now in his late forties, prepares to enter public life, that position may face its toughest test. If Nishant formally enters politics, Nitish Kumar could confront the same criticism he once directed at rival leaders.What remains undisputed, however, is his extraordinary ability to remain at the centre of Bihar’s politics for more than three decades.