Nitish Kumar was 22nd Chief Minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Nitish Kumar is an Indian politician and leads the Janata Dal (United) Party. As the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar achieved much respect and admiration by instigating a series of progressive and constructive actions and activities such as construction of bridges, improving the condition of roadways, employing numerous school teachers, ensuring that doctors operated in primary health centres, and keeping check on illegal activities.
Early Life of Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar was born on 1st March 1951 in Bakhtiarpur District, Bihar to the parents Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh and Parmeshwari Devi. His father was a freedom fighter who was to the great Gandhian. Nitish Kumar graduated from Bihar College of Engineering, now NIT Patna, with a Bachelor`s degree in Electrical Engineering. Nitish Kumar was married to Late Manju Kumari Sinha, with whom he has a son.
Political Career of Nitish Kumar
Between 1974 and 1977, Nitish Kumar took part in the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan and was very close to Satyandra Narayan Sinha, who was a prominent leader of that time. In the year 1985, Nitish was first elected to the Bihar legislative assembly. In 1987, he held the post of the president of the Yuva Lok Dal. After two years in 1989, he became the Secretary-General of the Janata Dal in Bihar. Nitish Kumar was also being elected to the 9th Lok Sabha in that particular year.
Nitish Kumar became the Union Minister of State for Agriculture in 1990. He became General Secretary of the Janata Dal at the National Level in 1991 after his re-election to the Lok Sabha. Nitish Kumar also became the Deputy Leader of Janata Dal in Parliament in the same year. Between 1989 and 2004, Nitish delineated Barh Parliamentary Constituency (Bihar) in the Lok Sabha. In 1998-99, he concisely served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Railways and Surface Transport and then as the Minister for Agriculture. In August 1999, following the Railway Accident at Gaisal in North East India, Nitish resigned.
In 2000, Nitish Kumar was made the Chief Minister of Bihar but he resigned within only seven days. He rejoined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture later that year. From 2001 to May 2004, in the NDA Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nitish Kumar held the post of the Union Cabinet Minister for Railways. He contended elections from 2 constituencies, Barh and Nalanda in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Nitish Kumar lost from his traditional constituency, Barh but was elected from Nalanda. He was the leader of the Janata Dal (United) Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha.
The National Democratic Alliance led to a victory in the Bihar Assembly elections in November 2005, by him. On 24 November 2005, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar. As the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish also holds the Chairmanship of a salient Business School of Bihar, the L.N. Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change.
On 26th November 2010, Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister of Bihar again. This was his second consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Bihar. The JDU-BJP won together with four-fifth majority. NDA won 206 seats while RJD won 22 seats. No party there has won enough seats to represent the opposition in the state assembly, which requires at least 25 seats to become eligible to represent the main opposition party. Later on 17th May 2014, Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation due to the poor performance in 2014 Lok Sabha General Election of India.
Awards and recognitions of Nitish Kumar
| XLRI, Jamshedpur "Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal" for Industrial & Social Peace 2011. |
| MSN Indian of the year 2010 |
| NDTV Indian of the Year - Politics, 2010 |
| Forbes "India`s Person of the Year", 2010 |
| CNN-IBN "Indian of the Year Award" - Politics, 2010 |
| NDTV Indian of the year - Politics, 2009 |
| Economics Times "Business reformer of the Year 2009" |
| Polio Eradication Championship Award` 2009, by Rotary Internationals |
| CNN-IBN Great Indian of the Year - Politics, 2008 |
| The Best Chief Minister, according to the CNN-IBN and HT State of the Nation Poll 2007. |