Overview
Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician from Bihar. He is the national president of the Janata Dal (United) and has served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. Kumar has been the longest serving Chief Minister of Bihar, having held the office briefly in 2001, from 2005 to 2014, and again from 2015 onwards.
Kumar entered politics as a member of the Janata Dal and was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1985. A socialist by political orientation, he co-founded the Samata Party in 1994 along with George Fernandes. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 and served as a Union Minister in the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with his party as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In 2003, the Samata Party merged into the Janata Dal (United), and Kumar became its leader.
In 2005, the NDA secured a majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Kumar became Chief Minister, heading a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The coalition was returned to power in the 2010 state election. In June 2013, Kumar parted ways with the BJP after Narendra Modi was named the party's prime ministerial candidate, and subsequently aligned with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Indian National Congress (INC) in the Mahagathbandhan, also associated with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). After the party's performance in the 2014 general election, Kumar resigned as Chief Minister on 17 May 2014 and was succeeded by Jitan Ram Manjhi. He returned to the post in February 2015, and the Mahagathbandhan went on to win a large majority in the state election later that year.
In 2017, Kumar exited the Mahagathbandhan and returned to the NDA, again forming a coalition government with the BJP. His government was narrowly re-elected in the 2020 state election. In August 2022, Kumar left the NDA and rejoined the Mahagathbandhan, and was associated with the formation of the Indian National Developmental Incl