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Nitish Kumar Sworn In As Bihar Chief Minister For 9th Time

JD(U) Leader Nitish Kumar Took Oath As Bihar’s Chief Minister For The 9th Time On January 28, Switching Sides For The 5th Time In Little Over 10 Years. Nitish Kumar...

JD(U) Leader Nitish Kumar Took Oath As Bihar’s Chief Minister For The 9th Time On January 28, Switching Sides For The 5th Time In Little Over 10 Years.

Nitish Kumar Sworn In As Bihar Chief Minister For 9th Time

Why In The News?

  • JD(U) Leader Nitish Kumar Took Oath As Bihar’s Chief Minister For The 9th Time On January 28, Switching Sides For The 5th Time In Little Over 10 Years.
  • As Nitish Goes Back To An Alliance With A BJP, He Has Vociferously Criticised, And As The BJP Accepts With Open Arms An Ally It Had Aggressively Attacked.
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What Do We Know?

  • Nitish Was Part Of The Socialist Crop Of Leaders In Bihar Who Came To Prominence During The JP Movement Of 1974-75. He Spent His First Few Years In Politics In The Shadow Of The More Charismatic Lalu Prasad Yadav And The Firebrand George Fernandes.
  • Fernandes And Nitish Together Formed The Samata Party In 1994. He First Aligned With The NDA, In 1996, Winning The Lok Sabha Seat From Barh. He Also Became The Bihar CM For A Short Seven Days In 2000 With The NDA’s Support.
  • Nitish Was The Union Minister For Railways And Minister For Surface Transport In Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA Govt. On August 2, 1999, Two Trains Collided In Gaisal In West Bengal, Killing Around 285 People. Nitish Resigned As Minister, Taking Responsibility.
  • His Short Tenure Was Praised For Reforms Like Internet Ticket Booking Facility And The Tatkal System. The Same Year, He Was Appointed The Union Minister For Agriculture, And In 2001, The Railway Ministry Was Restored To Him.
  • Before The 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, When It Became Clear That Gujarat CM Narendra Modi Would Be The NDA’s PM Face, Nitish Walked Out Of The Alliance, Saying Its Leader Should Have A “Clean And Secular Image”.
  • After The JD(U)’s Lok Sabha Seats Tally Fell From 20 To Two In 2014, Nitish Resigned As CM, Taking Responsibility. Jitan Ram Manjhi Was Appointed As CM. Months Later, Manjhi Was Asked To Resign, And When He Refused To Do So, Was Expelled From The JD(U). Nitish Came Back As Chief Minister.
  • Despite His Unreliable Track Record, There’s A Reason Nitish Is Welcomed Back Into Any Alliance He Chooses To Join. The RJD, Despite Its Larger Social Base Of Loyal Voters And The Enduring Popularity Of Lalu Yadav, Lacks Nitish’s Credentials Of Good Governance And Development.
  • The BJP, Even With Its Massive Appeal On The National Level, Lacks A Leader Of Stature In Bihar, And Understands The Value Of Nitish’s Vote-bank Of Extremely Backwards Castes And Beneficiaries Of Government Welfare Schemes.
  • Nitish Has Been CM For Over 17 Years, But Many, Like Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling (24 Years), Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik (23 Years), Bengal’s Jyoti Basu (23 Years), Have Been In Power For Longer Than He Has.

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