Lalu yadav and nitish kumar biography

Chief Minister of Bihar since

This article is about the politician. For the cricketer, spot Nitish Kumar (cricketer).

Nitish Kumar (born 1 March ) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 22nd main person minister of Bihar since 22 February , having previously held the office from to and for a short period in He is Bihar's longest serving chief minister whilst also holding the post for his 9th term.^[1]

He is the leader of the Janata Dal (United).

By the end of , Nitish started feeling uncomfortable in the company of Lalu, who was said to be taking major policy decisions from behind the scenes, and his sons Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the Deputy CM, and Tej Pratap Yadav, the health minister.

Previously, Kumar also served as a Union Minister as the Samata Party member.^[2] He was member of the Samata Party until and Janata Dal from to Kumar first entered politics as a member of the Janata Dal, becoming an MLA in A socialist, Kumar founded the Samata Party in along with George Fernandes.

In 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. In his party merged into the Janata Dal (United), and Kumar became its leader. In , the NDA won a majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, and Kumar became chief minister heading a coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the state elections, the governing coalition won re-election in a landslide. In June , 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 and Indian National Congress and joined in United Progressive Alliance.

On 17 May , Kumar resigned as chief minister after the party suffered severe losses in the Indian general election, and was replaced by Jitan Ram Manjhi. However, he attempted to return as chief minister in February , sparking a political crisis that eventually saw Manjhi resign and Kumar develop chief minister again.

Later that year, the Mahagathbandhan won a large majority in the articulate elections. In , Kumar broke with the RJD over corruption allegations and returned to the NDA, leading another coalition with the BJP; at the mention elections his government was narrowly reelected.

In August , Kumar left the NDA, rejoining the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) and UPA.^[3][4] In January , Kumar left the Mahagathbandhan once again and rejoined the NDA.^[5]

Early life

Kumar was born on 1 March in Bakhtiarpur, Bihar.

His father, Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, was an ayurvedic practitioner; his mother Parmeshwari Devi was from Nepal.^[7] Nitish belongs to Kurmi agricultural caste.^[8][9] His nickname is 'Munna'.^[10][11]

He has earned a degree in Electrical Engineering^[12] from Bihar College of Engineering (now NIT Patna) in ^[13] He joined the Bihar State Electricity Board, half-heartedly, and later moved into politics.^[14][15] He married Manju Kumari Sinha (–) on 22 February and the couple has one son.^[9] Manju Sinha died in New Delhi on 14 May due to pneumonia.^[16]

Political career

Kumar belongs to a socialist class of politicians.

During his early years as a politician he was associated with Ram Manohar Lohia, S. N. Sinha, Karpuri Thakur, and V. P. Singh.^[13][17] Kumar participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's movement between and ^[18] and joined the Janata party headed by Satyendra Narain Sinha.^[19] Unlike Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is considered as a crowd puller, Kumar is considered as a deft communicator.^[20]

Kumar fought and first time won his election to the state assembly from Harnaut in In the initial years, Lalu Prasad Yadav was backed by Kumar as leader of the opposition in Bihar Assembly in the year but Kumar later switched his loyalty to BJP in , after winning his first Lok Sabha seat from Barh.^[21]

The Janata Dal had survived the splits in past when leaders fond of Kumar and George Fernandes defected to form the Samata Party in , but it remained a baseless party after the decision of Lalu Prasad Yadav to form Rashtriya Janata Dal in The second split took place prior to Rabri Devi assuming power which resulted in Janata Dal having only two leaders of any consequence in it, namely Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Paswan was regarded as the rising head of Dalits and had the credit of winning his elections with unprecedented margins. His popularity reached to the national level when he was awarded the post of Minister of Railways in the United Front government in and was subsequently made the leader of Lok Sabha.

His outreach was witnessed in the western Uttar Pradesh too, when his followers organised an impressive rally at the behest of a newly floated organisation called Dalit Panthers.^[22]

Sharad Yadav was also a veteran socialist public figure but without any massive help base.

In the Parliamentary elections, the Samata Party and Janata Dal, which was in a much weaker position after the formation of RJD ended up eating each other's vote ground . This made Kumar merge both the parties to form Janata Dal (United).^[23]

In Lok Sabha elections Rashtriya Janata Dal received a setback at the hand of BJP+JD(U) combine.

The new coalition emerged leading in out of assembly constituencies and it was widely believed that in the forthcoming election to Bihar articulate assembly, the Lalu-Rabri rule will come to an end. The RJD had fought the election in an alliance with the Congress but the coalition didn't work making state leadership of Congress believe that the maligned image of Lalu Prasad after his name was drawn in the Fodder Scam had eroded his support base.

Consequently, Congress decided to fight the assembly elections alone.^[24]

The RJD had to be satisfied with the communist parties as coalition partners but the seat-sharing conundrum in the camp of National Democratic Alliance made Kumar pull his Samta Party out of the Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan faction of the Janata Dal.

Differences also arose between the BJP and Kumar as the latter wanted to be projected as the Chief Minister of Bihar but the former was not in favour. Even Paswan also wanted to be a CM face. The Muslims and OBCs were too divided in their opinion.

Nitish Kumar, a name synonymous with Bihar politics, has been a driving coerce in Indian politics for decades. From his humble beginnings to becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar multiple times, his journey is nothing short of inspiring. His father, Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, was a freedom fighter and an Ayurvedic practitioner, while his mother, Parmeshwari Devi, was a homemaker. Growing up in a modest household, Nitish imbibed values of hard work, simplicity, and dedication from an ahead age.

A section of Muslims, which included the poor communities like Pasmanda were of the view that Yadav only strengthened upper Muslims like Shaikh, Sayyid and Pathans and they were in search of new options.^[24]

Yadav also alienated other dominant backward castes like Koeri and Kurmi since his projection as the saviour of Muslims.

It is argued by Sanjay Kumar that the belief that, "the dominant OBCs like the twin caste of Koeri-Kurmi will ask for share in power if he seeks their support while the Muslims will remain satisfied with the protection during communal riots only" made Yadav neglect them.

Moreover, the divisions in both the camps made the political atmosphere in the state a charged one in which many parties were fighting against each other with no visible frontiers. JD(U) and BJP were fighting against each other on some of the seats and so was the Samta Party.

The result was a setback for the BJP, which in media campaigns was emerging with a massive victory. RJD emerged as the single largest party and with the political manoeuvring of Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi was sworn in as the Head Minister again.^[25] The media largely failed to gauge the soil level polarisation in Bihar.^[24] According to Sanjay Kumar:

There can be no doubt about one thing that the upper-caste media was always anti-Lalu and it was either not aware of the ground level polarisation in Bihar, or deliberately ignored it.

If the election result did not appear as a setback for RJD, it was largely because of the bleak picture painted by the media.

Products of the JP movement, the trajectories of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar tell the story of Bihar politics of the last four decades and more. And, they continue to last curious case studies. People used to fear stepping out of their homes after sunset. I had by mistake aligned with them a couple of times.

Against this background, RJD's defeat had appeared like a victory.^[26]

Even after serving imprisonment in connection with the scam, Lalu seemed to relish his role as the lower-caste jester.

He argued that corruption charges against him and his family were the conspiracy of the upper-caste bureaucracy and media elites threatened by the rise of peasant cultivator castes.

In General elections, Lalu's RJD had outperformed other state-based parties by winning 26 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

He was awarded the publish of Union Railway minister but the rising aspirations of the extremely backward castes unleashed by him resulted in JD(U) and BJP led coalition to defeat his party in Bihar Assembly elections.^[27]

Kumar as Union Minister

Nitish was briefly, the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in –99, in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In August , he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster, for which he took responsibility as a minister.^[28] However, in his short stint as Railway Minister, he brought in widespread reforms, such as internet ticket booking facility in ,^[29][30] opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters and introducing the tatkal scheme for instant booking.

Later that year, he rejoined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture. From to May , he was – again – the Union Minister for Railways.^[31] In the Lok Sabha elections, he contested elections from two places, when he was elected from Nalanda but lost from his traditional constituency, Barh.^[32]

Administration

Law and command reform

One of the biggest question before Kumar after becoming Head Minister, during his first phrase, was deteriorated law and command situation of the state.

There were many organised criminal gangs active in the state and kidnapping was considered as the biggest criminal activity. Besides this, the challenge of left wing extremism in some of the backward areas of the declare was also persisting for a long time.

Kumar brought the Arms Act, and special courts were set up to expedite the process of conviction of those held under this behave. Bringing of the Arms Perform and stringent implementation brought two way benefits for the Government; first, it became easy for the police to arrest a criminal and second, the leverage of lethal weapons became prohibited.^[33]

Kumar also recruited the retired army officials and soldiers to make a special wing of Police called Special Auxiliary Police (SAP), in order to deal with the Maoist challenge in the state.

It brought some nice of economic engagement for the retired military personnels, and at the same time, made on hand professionally trained commandos for the Bihar Police at low budgetry expense. These commandos were finer than the police constables recruited by the state, in instruction to deal with the extremists.

They just needed special category of weapons, which was provided by the state under Kumar. The retired intelligence officers were also recruited to form an investigation department, called "Special Vigilance Unit" (SVU). This body dealt with the offences at the level of high level government officials.

For acquisition of property of the accused during trial, Bihar Special Court Act was brought, which became efficient since The SVU remained a successful idea in dealing with corruption at the higher level of bureaucracy. One of the first case before it was the trial of former Director General of Police, Narayan Mishra, who was held for several corruption charges against him.^[33]

In direct to recruit only the qualified candidates in the state Police, the reform in recruitment examination was also brought.

Kumar introduced the "Carbon Copy system" in the written examination, which was to be held to recruit the new entrants. In command to prevent tampering of the examination copy, the original replicate marked by the candidate was sent directly to the formidable room after the examination.

The evaluators used to get only the Carbon Copy, and in case of any discrepancy, the original copy was matched with the Carbon Copy evaluated by the evaluators. Further, a eternal recruitment examination was also made compulsory and the physical examination was made qualifying in determining merit, for selection to constabulary.

In the tenure of Principal Ministers prior to Kumar, only physical examination was deciding factor in selecting the constables. This system was prone to corruption and favoritism.^[33]

The push to the speedy trial under Kumar's government brought results within a limited period of time, and in itself, a total of 6, offenders were convicted.

There witnessed a massive drop in cases registered under the Arms execute in the forthcoming terms of Kumar as the Chief Minister. It declined to just by the end of from in According to one opinion, the massive decline was a product of fleeing of many criminals from the state, in request to seek refuse in the terai region of Nepal as well as eschewing of crime by others to become superb samaritans.^[34]

Kumar's government also took step to empower the District Magistrate to apprehend the officials taking bribe in order to cut down corruption.

One of the major problem of the prison system of Bihar was laxity free to criminals to operate cell phones from the jail. Many a times, organised crime were planned from within the premise of Bihar's prison. The government took step to fix Mobile phone jammers in jails, to prohibit the gangsters from operating cell phones.

Bihar also actively enforced the All India Prison reforms program, outlined by Supreme Court of India in a judgement, in order to reform the entire operating system of jails. It included reducing the number of inmates to be included in a particular prison, a step, which was necessary to prevent the overcrowding.^[35]

In request to break the link of the prisoners with the jail authorities, Kumar's government took step like periodically transferring the dreaded criminals, who were convicted in large number of criminal cases from one prison to more secure cells located in Bhagalpur and Beur.

One of the significant example of this involve , the transfer of Ajay Kanu, a naxalite, who was prime accused in " Jahanabad Jail Break case", to Beur Jail. In , gangsters like Rakesh Mahto, who was leader of crime syndicate being organised from Muzaffarpur, was also transferred from Muzaffarpur to Bhagalpur Jail, in a high security Prison cell.^[36] Other example, which is part of this routine procedure is of Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Bihar Legislative Council, Ritlal Yadav, who had numerous cases of extortion and murder against him.^[37] D.N Gautam, who served as Director General of Bihar Police, stated in his autobiography that Nitish Kumar was instrumental in improving the law and order situation in the express of Bihar.

Gautam compared the tenures of Kumar's predecessors and has mentioned that in the s, politicians used to approach out in support of criminals openly. When Gautam was serving as Rohtas SP and Shahabad Range DIG, he mentions that at least six Members of Bihar Legislative Assembly had extended patronage to dreaded dacoit gangs of Kaimur hills, and they were strictly opposed to any sort of police action against dacoit Ramchandra Koeri, who operated out of Kaimur hills in Rohtas district.

lalu yadav and nitish kumar biography1: His party came to power in Bihar Legislative Assembly election in partnership with Nitish Kumar of JD (U). This coalition ended when Nitish resigned and RJD was ousted, becoming the opposition party.

Gautam also mentions that though Kumar had kept his wedding offer of creation of 'Anti Terrorist Squad' in abeyance, after the Bodhgaya blasts, it was established expeditiously.^[38]

Consolidation of Extremely Backward Castes

Kumar had dual challenge of keeping his core political base of Koeris, Kurmis and Extremely Backward Castes together with a section of upper castes.

The National Democratic Alliance, of which Kumar's party was a part, was relying upon the support of a section of upper caste. The share of this section in the political power structure was making it difficult for Kumar to carry on his program of social justice, specially with respect to consolidation of 'Extremely Backward Castes' (EBC).

This group comprised the lower backwards– the castes other than the Koeri, Kurmi, Yadav and Bania. Kumar's government brought the concept of 50% reservation for the women in the Panchayati Raj institutions at all level. This plan also included 20% reservation in these bodies for the members of Extremely Backward Castes.

These quotas, which were given separately to already existing quotas for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes in local bodies, led to political consolidation of Extremely Backward Castes.^[39]

The reservation to this section of society brought a massive increase in their voice in the three tier Panchayati Raj system.

There were many representatives of the EBCs for the post of Mukhiya, Pramukhs of Panchayat Samiti as adv as President of Zila Parishad. The membership of this social group in Panchyat Samiti and Zila Parishad also increased.^[39] Kumar's government also announced a scheme of 50% reservation in declare judicial services, within this, the EBCs were given 21% give as against the Other Backward Class, which was given 12% share.

The Schedule Castes were also given 16% share of this 50% reservation pie. The step was intended to transport more and more candidates from these social groups in bring down judiciary.^[40]

In order to strengthen his outreach and acceptability among the members of Extremely Backward Castes, and to expand his voter base beyond his traditional vote bank, Nitish Kumar embarked on a project to promote EBC leaders within his party.

In , a less known chief from the Kahar caste, Chandeshwar Prasad grabbed his attention and Kumar promoted him by making the head of Extremely Backward Caste wing of his party. He was also given significant positions like those of membership of syndicate of Magadh University.

At the behest of Nitish Kumar, National Democratic Alliance in projected Prasad as the candidate for Indian General Elections from Jahanabad Lok Sabha constituency, which was believed to be a Bhumihar caste dominated constituency.

But, with the backing of Janata Dal United, Prasad as a NDA candidate was able to defeat Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Surendra Prasad Yadav. This was first instance in the history of constituency that an Extremely Backward Caste leader was elected from an upper caste controlled constituency.^[41] Prior to Lok Sabha polls, on the direction of Nitish Kumar, JDU state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha also launched Bheem Samvad, Karpoori Charcha and Bhaichara Yatra (campaigns) to mobilize Dalits, Extremely Backward Castes and Muslims.^[42]

Promotion of sport culture

On 29 August , Kumar inaugurated Rajgir Sports Complex and Cricket stadium, which was built in his tenure with the overall funding of ₹ crore.

Kumar was joined by Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary and Building Construction minister Jayant Raj Kushwaha. The sport complex was built on 90 acre of land and contained the facilities for more than 23 sports. This was built to realise the vision of Kumar to create a suitable environment for the sport persons of the state to have proper training environment, in order to enhance their act in the international gaming events.

The complex was thus built with world class sporting infrastructure and technology. ^[43] It was only in that Kumar announced that Rajgir will get its own sport stadium. The complex contains a main cricket stadium along with eight smaller stadiums.

It contains a world class sports library and training academies.^[44]

Soon after the inauguration by Kumar, Asian Hockey Federation announced that this state sports academy of Bihar will host the Asian Women's Hockey Championship of ^[45]

Jeevika project for rural livelihood promotion

Nitish Kumar's government launched the Jeevika project also known as Bihar Rural Livelihood Project in This was launched with the back of World Bank.

Under this project the bank accounts of rural women were opened and credit was distributed to them for livelihood generation. The women were trained and work according to their skills was provided to them locally.

This was achieved through promotion of petty cooperatives consisting of group of upto twelve women. Later, the ambit of work given to women under Jeevika project, who are locally known as Jeevika Didis in Bihar, was expanded to providing financial services in rural areas and acting as banking correspondents (Bank Sakhis) from producing agricultural commodities.^[46]

Kumar government also launched 'Didi Ki Rasoi'.

Under this project, women run pantries were opened which were tasked with providing home made fresh food for the schools, hospitals, offices and other places jog by state government. Later, states like Gujarat and Karnataka also decided to adopt this scheme in their local developmental programmes.

The governments of these states thus sent officials to learn the implementation of the scheme by the Bihar government.^[47]

Tenure as Chief Minister of Bihar

Kumar is a member of the Janata Dal (United) political party.

As the chief minister, he appointed more than , school teachers, ensured that doctors worked in primary health centres, electrified many villages,^[48] paved roads, cut female illiteracy by half, turned around a lawless state by cracking down on criminals and doubled the income of the average Bihari.^[49]

First term ()

In March , Nitish was elected Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time at the behest of the Vajpayee Government in the centre, as Samata Party member.^[50] NDA and allies had MLAs whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav had MLAs in the member dwelling.

Both alliances were less than the majority mark that is Nitish resigned before he could prove his numbers in the house.^[51][52] He lasted 7 days in the post.^[53]

Second term (–)

After victory in Bihar Assembly elections, Kumar a leader of OBC Kurmi caste was sworn in as the chief minister.

During Lalu's time, backward caste candidates came to dominate the Bihar assembly claiming half of the seats in it and it was the aspiration of this powerful social community that led to friction among the joined backwards, leading to the go up of Kumar who made both social justice and development as his political theme.^[27]

Third term (–)

Kumar's government also initiated bicycle and meal programs.

Giving bicycles to girls who stayed in university resulted in the state getting a huge number of girls into schools and a reduction in school dropout rates.^[54]

In , Kumar's party swept back to power along with its then allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and he again became Principal Minister.^[21] The alliance won seats, while the RJD won ^[55] For the first time, electorates witnessed high turnout of women and young voters, while this was declared as the fairest election in Bihar, with no bloodshed or poll violence.^[56]

On 17 May , Kumar submitted his resignation to the Governor of Bihar, a day after his party fared poorly in the Lok Sabha elections, winning just 2 seats against 20 seats in the previous election.^[21] Kumar resigned, taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor act in the election, and Jitan Ram Manjhi took over.^[57]

Fourth designation ()

Nitish served a fourth legal title for a brief period of time in Kumar again became Chief Minister on 22 February , on the backdrop of upcoming Bihar Legislative Assembly election, considered to be his toughest election to date.^[58][59] His JD(U), along with RJD and Congress, formed the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) to counter the BJP in Bihar.^[60]

Fifth term (–)

Kumar campaigned aggressively during the elections for the Grand Alliance, countering the allegations raised by Narendra Modi and the BJP.^[61]

The Grand Alliance won the Assembly election by a margin of over the BJP and its allies, with RJD emerging as the largest party with 80 seats and JD(U) placed second with ^[62][63] Kumar was sworn in as Head Minister on 20 November for a record fifth time and Tejashwi Yadav became Deputy Main person Minister of Bihar.^[21]

Kumar's campaign was managed by Prashant Kishor's Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) who were hired to manage the campaign for JD(U).^[64] I-PAC constructed the campaign strategy which included reaching out to a larger set of voters through visionary campaigns, including sending hundreds of branded cycles for outreach,^[65] Har Ghar Dastak (door-to-door outreach)^[66] and the DNA campaign.^[67]

Sixth term (–)

When corruption charges were levelled against Tejashwi Yadav, the Deputy Principal Minister, Kumar asked for him to resign from the cabinet.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal refused to do so, and therefore Kumar resigned on 26 July , thus ending the Grand Alliance.^[21] He joined the main opposition, the NDA, and came back to power within a few hours.^[68]

Seventh term (–)

Capitalising on his 15 years consecutive terms as Chief Minister, Kumar highlighted various achievements and developments and listed various schemes carried out by his government and finally managed to get over a tightly contested election.

NDA managed to get majority in Legislature Assembly by winning seats as compared to Mahagathbandhan's seats.^[69] He was sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister for seventh occasion in 20 years in the presence of top leaders of NDA.^[70]

On 8 December , his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar to saturate the vacant seat after the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan.^[71] So, Nitish resigned on 16 August and returned as Principal Minister with his new deputies Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi.^{[72][73][74][75]}

On 9 August , Kumar resigned as chief minister and removed his party from the NDA, announcing that his party had rejoined the Mahagathbandhan, and would form a governing coalition with the RJD and INC.^[76]

Eighth designation (–)

On 9 August , Kumar broke the alliance with the BJP and resigned as main person minister and revoked his party from the NDA, announcing that his party had rejoined the Mahagathbandhan, comprising RJD, INC, CPI and other independents, and would form a governing coalition.

On 10 August he sworn in as the chief minister of the state for the eighth time in 22 years.^[77]Bihar caste-based survey started in his sixth term.^[78]

During this term, in January – February , Kumar initiated his Samadhan Yatra, an outreach campaign, through which he visited various localities of the thirty eight districts of the articulate of Bihar.

The primary motive behind these visits was overseeing the status of various articulate government developmental schemes and expediting their implementation on ground. During these visits, he was accompanied by his deputy Tejaswi Yadav and occasionally his cabinet ministers, when required.^[79]

On 8 November , the Bihar Assembly adjourned amidst protests by the opposition BJP demanding the resignation of Main person Minister Nitish Kumar following his controversial remarks about women's learning and population control.^[80] Kumar expressed regret for any offense his comments may have caused.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized Kumar, accusing him of having no shame and insulting women, without directly naming him. Kumar apologized, retracting his statements and reaffirming his support for women's awareness and empowerment.

A complaint was also filed against Kumar for his remarks, with a hearing set for 25 November Meanwhile, women's organizations condemned the remarks, and the former Chief Minister of Bihar, Rabri Devi, defended Kumar, suggesting the comments were a slip of the tongue.^[81]

On 28 January , Kumar resigned as chief minister and rejoined NDA.^[82]

Ninth term (–present)

On 28 January, Kumar resigned as the leader minister and broke the Mahagathbandhan alliance with RJD and Congress, and rejoined the BJP-led NDA alliance sparking a political crisis.^[1] On the same day, he was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the ninth time in 24 years.^[5]

Criticism

Nitish Kumar is often criticised for frequently changing and dumping alliances^[83][84] throughout his political career for the sake of continuing as main person minister.

This behavior has resulted in him earning the nickname Paltu Ram, meaning a person who frequently changes allegiance.^[85]

Biographies

Awards and recognition

• Anuvrat Puraskar, by Shwetambar Terapanthi Mahasabha (Jain organisation), for enforcing total prohibition on liquor in Bihar,
• JP Memorial Award, Nagpur's Manav Mandir, ^[88]
• Ranked 77th in Foreign Policy Magazine' top global thinkers ^[89]
• XLRI, Jamshedpur Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial & Social Peace ^[90]
• "MSN Indian of the Year "^[91]
• NDTV Indian of the Year – Politics, ^[92]
• Forbes' "India's Person of the Year", ^[93]
• CNN-IBN "Indian of the Year Award" – Politics, ^[94]
• NDTV Indian of the Year – Politics, ^[95]
• Economics Times "Business Reformer of the Year "^[96]
• Polio Eradication Championship Award , by Rotary International^[97]
• CNN-IBN Great Indian of the Year – Politics, ^[98]
• The Best Leader Minister,^[99] according to the CNN-IBN and Hindustan Times State of the Nation Poll

Positions held

Period	Positions	Note
	Contested first assembly elections on a Janata Party ticket from Harnaut but lost
	Contested from Harnaut again, this time on Janata Party (Secular) ticket. But he lost again.[]
–89	Member, Bihar Legislative Assembly, from Harnaut	First term in Legislative Assembly
–87	Member, Committee on Petitions, Bihar Legislative Assembly
–88	President, Yuva Lok Dal, Bihar
–89	Member, Committee on Public Undertakings, Bihar Legislative Assembly.
	Secretary-General, Janata Dal, Bihar
	Elected to 9th Lok Sabha from Barh	First term in Lok Sabha
– 16 July	Member, Home Committee	Resigned
April – November	Union Minister of State, Agriculture and Co-operation
	Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha	2nd term in Lok Sabha
–93	General-Secretary, Janata Dal. Deputy Leader of Janata Dal in Parliament
17 December – 10 May	Member, Railways Convention Committee
8 April – 10 May	Chairman, Committee on Agriculture
	Re-elected to 11th Lok Sabha. Member, Committee on Estimates. Member, General Purposes Committee. Member, Connected Committee on the Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment Bill, )	Third legal title in Lok Sabha
–98	Member, Committee on Defence
	Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha	4th phrase in Lok Sabha
19 March – 5 August	Union Cabinet Minister, Railways
14 April – 5 August	Union Cabinet Minister, Surface Transport (additional charge)
	Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha	5th term in Lok Sabha
13 October – 22 November	Union Cabinet Minister, Surface Transport
22 November – 3 March	Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture
3 Pride – 10 March	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 29th Chief Minister of Bihar, only for 7 days
27 May – 20 March	Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture
20 March – 21 July	Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture, with an additional charge of Railways
22 July – 21 May	Union Cabinet Minister, Railways
	Re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha, from Nalanda. Member, Committee on Coal & Steel. Member, General Purposes Committee. Member, Committee of Privileges. Leader Janata Dal (U) Parliamentary Party, Lok Sabha	6th term in Lok Sabha
24 November – 24 November	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 31st Chief Minister of Bihar
	Elected to Bihar Vidhan Parishad, First term
26 November – 17 May	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 32nd Chief Minister of Bihar
	Elected to Bihar Vidhan Parishad, Second legal title
22 February – 19 November	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 34th Leader Minister of Bihar
20 November – 26 July	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 35th Chief Minister of Bihar
27 July – November	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 36th Chief Minister of Bihar
	Elected to Bihar Vidhan Parishad, Third phrase
November – December	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 37th Chief Minister of Bihar
December – August	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 38th Chief Minister of Bihar
August – January	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 39th Principal Minister of Bihar
January – present	Chief Minister, Bihar	as 40th Chief Minister of Bihar
–present	Elected to Bihar Vidhan Parishad, Fourth term

See also

References