Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar
	Kumar in 2024
22nd Chief Minister of Bihar
	Outgoing
	Assumed office ; 22 February 2015
Governor	List Keshari Nath Tripathi; Ram Nath Kovind; Satya Pal Malik; Lalji Tandon; Phagu Chauhan; Rajendra Arlekar; Arif Mohammad Khan; Syed Ata Hasnain; ;
Deputy	List Tejashwi Yadav; Sushil Kumar Modi; Tarkishore Prasad; Renu Devi; Samrat Chaudhary; Vijay Kumar Sinha; ;
Cabinet	Nitish Kumar
Preceded by	Jitan Ram Manjhi
	In office; 24 November 2005 – 20 May 2014
Governor	List Buta Singh; Gopalkrishna Gandhi; R. S. Gavai; R. L. Bhatia; Devanand Konwar; D. Y. Patil; ;
Deputy	Sushil Kumar Modi
Preceded by	President's rule
Succeeded by	Jitan Ram Manjhi
	In office; 3 March 2000 – 10 March 2000
Governor	V. C. Pande
Preceded by	Rabri Devi
Succeeded by	Rabri Devi
27th Union Minister of Railways
	In office; 20 March 2001 – 21 May 2004
President	K. R. Narayanan; A. P. J. Abdul Kalam;
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Mamata Banerjee
Succeeded by	Lalu Prasad Yadav
	In office; 19 March 1998 – 5 August 1999
President	K. R. Narayanan
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Ram Vilas Paswan
Succeeded by	Mamata Banerjee
24th Union Minister of Agriculture
	In office; 27 May 2000 – 21 July 2001
President	K. R. Narayanan
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Sunder Lal Patwa
Succeeded by	Ajit Singh
	In office; 22 November 1999 – 3 March 2000
President	K. R. Narayanan
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Succeeded by	Sunder Lal Patwa
11th Union Minister of Surface Transport
	In office; 13 October 1999 – 22 November 1999
President	K. R. Narayanan
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	M. Thambidurai
Succeeded by	Jaswant Singh
	In office; 14 April 1998 – 5 August 1999
President	K. R. Narayanan
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Jaswant Singh
Succeeded by	Rajnath Singh
24th Union Minister of State for Agriculture
	In office; 23 April 1990 – 10 November 1990
Minister	Devi Lal; V. P. Singh
Preceded by	Janardhana Poojary
Succeeded by	Upendra Nath Verma
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
	Designate
	Assuming office; 10 April 2026
Succeeding	Harivansh Narayan Singh
Constituency	Bihar
Constituency
Parliamentary offices
Member of Bihar Legislative Council
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 7 May 2006
Constituency	Elected by the MLAs
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
	In office; 13 May 2004 – 25 November 2005
Preceded by	George Fernandes
Succeeded by	Ram Swaroop Prasad
Constituency	Nalanda, Bihar
	In office; 28 November 1989 – 21 May 2004
Preceded by	Prakash Chandra Yadav
Succeeded by	Vijay Krishna
Constituency	Barh, Bihar
Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly
	In office; 1995–1996
Preceded by	Braj Nandan Yadav
Succeeded by	Arun Kumar Singh
Constituency	Harnaut
	In office; 1985–1990
Preceded by	Arun Kumar Singh
Succeeded by	Braj Nandan Yadav
Constituency	Harnaut
Preceded by
Party political offices
National President of Janata Dal (United)
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 29 December 2023
Preceded by	Lalan Singh
	In office; 10 April 2016 – 27 December 2020
Preceded by	Sharad Yadav
Succeeded by	RCP Singh
Personal details
Born	1 March 1951; Bakhtiarpur, Bihar, India
Party	Janata Dal (United) ; (since 2005)
Other political; affiliations	National Democratic Alliance (since 2024; 2017–2022; 1999–2013); Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (2023–2024); United Progressive Alliance (2022–2023; 2015–2017); Samata Party (until 2005); Janata Dal (1989–1994)
Spouse	Manju Sinha (m. 1973; died 2007)
Children	Nishant Kumar
Alma mater	National Institute of Technology, Patna (B.E)
Signature
Nickname	Nitish Babu
	Source: [1]

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "termstart2". Replace with "term_start2".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister7". Replace with "prime_minister7".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "honorific-suffix". Replace with "honorific_suffix".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "termstart1". Replace with "term_start1".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "termend2". Replace with "term_end2".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister8". Replace with "prime_minister8".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister5". Replace with "prime_minister5".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister4". Replace with "prime_minister4".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "otherparty". Replace with "other_party".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "termend1". Replace with "term_end1".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister6". Replace with "prime_minister6".

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "primeminister3". Replace with "prime_minister3".

Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of Bihar since 2015, having previously held the office from 2005 to 2014 and briefly in 2000. The national president of the Janata Dal (United), he is Bihar's longest-serving chief minister, holding the post for 10 terms.

Kumar first entered politics as a member of the Janata Dal, becoming an MLA in 1985. A socialist, Kumar founded the Samata Party in 1994 along with George Fernandes. In 1996, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, and served as a Union Minister in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with his party joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In 2003, his party merged into the Janata Dal (United), and Kumar became its leader. In 2005, the NDA won a majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, and Kumar became chief minister heading a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the 2010 state election, the governing coalition won re-election in a landslide. In June 2013, Kumar broke with the BJP after Narendra Modi was named as their candidate for prime minister, and formed the Mahagathbandhan, a coalition with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Indian National Congress (INC) and joined in United Progressive Alliance (UPA). On 17 May 2014, Kumar resigned as chief minister after the party suffered severe losses in the 2014 general election, and was replaced by Jitan Ram Manjhi. However, he attempted to return as chief minister in February 2015, sparking a political crisis that eventually saw Manjhi resign and Kumar become chief minister again. Later that year, the Mahagathbandhan won a large majority in the state election. In 2017, Kumar broke with the RJD over corruption allegations and returned to the NDA, leading another coalition with the BJP; at the 2020 state election his government was narrowly reelected. In August 2022, Kumar left the NDA, rejoining the Mahagathbandhan; he would also become a founding member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. In January 2024, Kumar again left the Mahagathbandhan and rejoined the NDA, with the government winning the 2025 state election in a landslide. In March 2026, Kumar announced his pending resignation as chief minister and intention to contest the 2026 Rajya Sabha elections.