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Almost 20 years after he first took oath as the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the 23rd CM of the state on Monday. Though his first CM stint, in March 2000, lasted solely seven days, Kumar got here again to energy in 2005 and has been in the driving seat of Bihar politics ever since.
If he finishes his fourth straight time period, Kumar may go down in historical past as the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar.
Kumar was born on March 1, 1951 to Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, a freedom fighter near the nice Gandhian Anugrah Narayan Sinha, also called ‘Bihar Vibhuti’, and Parmeshwari Devi. He graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the Bihar College of Engineering, Patna (now NIT Patna) and went on to work for the Bihar State Electricity Board. In February 1973, shortly earlier than he received into full-time politics, Kumar married a college instructor, Manju Kumari Sinha, who died after extended sickness in 2007.
After the imposition of Emergency, Nitish joined JP Narayan’s motion and remained related to it from 1974 to 1978. He went on to work with not simply Jayaprakash Narayan, however Ram Manohar Lohia, Karpoori Thakur, George Fernandes, SN Sinha and VP Singh.
Kumar fought his first election in 1985 as an Independent candidate and entered the state meeting. In 1989, at the age of 38, he grew to become an MP from Barh Lok Sabha constituency. Soon after, he was appointed Union railway minister. But after the horrific Gaisal prepare accident, through which 285 individuals died, he resigned from his cupboard place and was accommodated as agriculture minister. All by this whereas, he stored rising by the ranks of the then Lalu Yadav-led Janata Dal.
In 1994, Kumar received out of Lalu Yadav’s shadow and co-founded Samta Party with George Fernandes. In the subsequent meeting elections, his occasion managed to win solely seven out of 324 seats.
Realising the political limitation of going alone in Bihar, the Samta Party solid an alliance with the BJP in 1996 and grew from six Lok Sabha seats in 1998 elections to 12 seats in 1999 normal elections. Propped up by the BJP, Kumar grew to become the CM for the first time in March 2000, however that authorities lasted solely seven days. In 2001, he returned to the Centre as railway minister and stayed on until 2004.
In some ways, the reinvention of Kumar occurred after the JD(U)-BJP gained the 2005 meeting elections. Realising the caste limitations of being chief of 3% Kurmi inhabitants and of focussing solely on growth tasks, Kumar started a two-pronged strategy. He began cultivating ladies voters, rolling out schemes like free cycles, free uniform, and scholarships, whereas additionally creating a stable Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and Mahadalit vote base by introducing reservation for them in panchayat and municipal our bodies.
He additionally launched reservation for ladies in native physique polls and in police providers as nicely. These teams have since stood agency behind Kumar in each election, together with the most up-to-date one, which many political observers thought can be the finish of him.
At 69, Kumar fought a bitter political marketing campaign, which he known as his profession’s final in his closing rally, and managed to carry on to his chief minister’s chair with a slender majority. But the method he emerged with far fewer seats (43) towards alliance accomplice BJP (74) on this election, his management and authority is lastly going to be put to the most extreme take a look at in the final lap of his profession.
The method he negotiates for cupboard berths for his occasion, the method BJP now treats LJP chief Chirag Paswan, its ally at the Centre who broken JD(U)’s prospects on at the very least two dozen meeting seats, may maintain clues to the political fortunes of JD(U) and of its chief, Kumar.
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