Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar was born on 1 March 1951 in Bakhtiarpur, Bihar. His father, Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, was an ayurvedic practitioner; his mother was Parmeshwari Devi. Nitish belongs to Kurmi agricultural caste.

He has earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Bihar College of Engineering (now NIT Patna) in 1972. He joined the Bihar State Electricity Board, half-heartedly, and later moved into politics. He married Manju Kumari Sinha (1955-2007) on 22 February 1973 and the couple has one son. Manju Sinha passed away in New Delhi on 14th May 2007 due to pneumonia.

Kumar was briefly, the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in 1998–99, in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In August 1999, he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster, for which he took responsibility as a minister. However, in his short stint as Railway Minister, he brought in widespread reforms, such as internet ticket booking facility in 2002, opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters and introducing the tatkal scheme for instant booking.

In March 2000, Nitish was elected Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time at the behest of the Vajpayee Government in the center. NDA and allies had 151 MLA whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav had 159 MLA in 324 member house. Both alliances were less than the majority mark that is 163. Nithish resigned before he could prove his numbers in the house.

Later that year, he rejoined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture. From 2001 to May 2004, he was – again – the Union Minister for Railways. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he contested elections from two places, when he was elected from Nalanda but lost from his traditional constituency, Barh.

In 2010, Kumar's party swept back to power along with its then allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and he again became Chief Minister. The alliance won 206 seats, while the RJD won 22. For the first time, electorates witnessed high turnout of women and young voters, while this was declared as the fairest election in Bihar, with no bloodshed or poll violence.

On 17 May 2014, Kumar submitted his resignation to the Governor of Bihar, a day after his party fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, winning just 2 seats against 20 seats in the previous election. Kumar resigned, taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor performance in the election, and Jitan Ram Manjhi took over.

Kumar again became Chief Minister on 22 February 2015, on the backdrop of upcoming 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, considered to be his toughest election to date. His JD(U), along with RJD and Congress, formed the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) to counter the BJP in Bihar.

Kumar campaigned aggressively during the elections for the Grand Alliance, countering the allegations raised by Narendra Modi and the BJP. The Grand Alliance won the Assembly election by a margin of 178 over the BJP and its allies, with RJD emerging as the largest party with 80 seats and JD(U) placed second with 71. Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister on 20 November 2015 for a record fifth time and Tejashwi Yadav became Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

When corruption charges were leveled against Tejashwi Yadav, the Deputy Chief Minister, Kumar asked for him to resign from the cabinet. The RJD refused to do so, and therefore Kumar resigned on 26 July 2017, thus ending the Grand Alliance. He joined the principal opposition, the NDA, and came back to power within a few hours.

Nitish Kumar's Nickname Is 'Munna': 10 Facts About Bihar Chief Minister On His Birthday

Born on March 1, 1951 at Kalyan Bigha village in Nalanda, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is known simplicity and honesty. During his tenure as the chief minister of Bihar, the JD-U stalwart has been credited with re-laying roads that had virtually ceased to exist, building of bridges, completing long-delayed infrastructure projects, appointing teachers and ensuring that doctors attended health centres. He also cracked down on criminals who had strong links to politics and speedy trials were ordered. He introduced 'Jaankari Scheme', to make Right To information more accessible for the common man. He also introduced E-shakti NREGS program, bicycle and meal programs (that led to fall in school dropout rates), 50 per cent reservation in electorals to women and extremely backward castes, health schemes and loan schemes for farmers. Recently, his government declared Bihar a dry State and imposed total prohibition on the sale and consumption of liquor, that has been lauded for reducing violence against women in the state, apart from bringing down the crime rate.