NITISH KUMAR KURUMA
Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of
Bihar since 2015. Previously he was Chief Minister of Bihar from
2005 to 2014 and served as a Minister in the Union Government of India.
He belongs to the Janata Dal (United)
party. As Chief Minister, he gained popularity by initiating a series of
developmental and constructive activities including building of long-delayed
bridges, re-laying roads that had ceased to exist, appointing over 100,000
school teachers, ensuring that doctors worked in primary health centers, and
keeping crime in check.
On May 17, 2014 he resigned, taking
moral responsibility for his party's poor performance in the 2014 general
elections. However, he returned to office in February 2015.
Early
life and career
Nitish Kumār was born in Bihar in a Kurmi
family to Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh and
Parmeshwari Devi. His father was a freedom fighter and
was close to the great Gandhian Bihar
Vibhuti Anugrah Narayan Sinha,
one of the founders of modern Bihar. His father, who was also
an Ayurvedic Vaidyaraj, left the Indian National
Congress to join the Janata Party, after it denied him candidature in
the 1952 and 1957 general elections.
He has a degree in Electrical Engineering
from NIT Patna (formerly known as Bihar College of
Engineering, Patna ). He joined the Bihar State
Electricity Board, but halfheartedly, and later moved into politics.
Political
career
Nitish Kumar belongs to a socialist
class of politicians.He learnt the lessons of politics under the tutelage of
stalwarts Jayaprakash Narayan,
Ram Manohar Lohia,
Karpoori Thakur, George Fernandes, S N Sinha and V. P. Singh.
Nitish Kumar participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's
movement between 1974 and 1977, and was close
to Satyendra Narayan
Sinha, a prominent leader of the time. In the 1980 Bihar assembly
elections, Kumar stood from Harnaut, which had a strong
presence of his fellow Kurmis. He was first elected to
the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1985 as an independent candidate. In 1987, he
became the President of the Yuva Lok Dal. In 1989, he became
the Secretary-General
of the Janata Dal in Bihar. He was also elected to the
9th Lok Sabha the same year. Nitish was aligned with Laloo Prasad Yadav
for years before they parted ways and Samata Party came into existence in 1994.
Union
Minister in Centre
In 1989, Nitish Kumar was appointed
as the Union Minister of State
for Agriculture in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap
Singh. In 1991, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha and became
General Secretary of the Janata Dal at the national level and the Deputy Leader
of Janata Dal in the Parliament. He represented Barh
parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha during 1989 and 2004.
He briefly served as the Union
Cabinet Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and then as
the Minister for Agriculture in 1998–99. In August 1999, he resigned following
the Gaisal train disaster.
During his term as Minister of
Railways, he brought widespread reforms such as internet ticket booking
facility, opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters and
introducing revolutionary tatkal scheme for instant booking.
The infamous burning of passengers by
Muslim mob at Godhra railway station in Gujarat and Godhra riots of 2002 happened during his tenure
as railway minister.
Later that year, he rejoined the
Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture. From 2001 to May 2004, he served as
the Union Cabinet Minister for Railways in the NDA
Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections he contested elections from two constituencies,
Barh
and Nalanda. He was elected from Nalanda but lost
from his traditional constituency, Barh.
Chief
Minister of Bihar
1st
Term (3 March 2000 – 10 March 2000)
On 3 March 2000, Nitish Kumar was
appointed the Chief Minister of
Bihar, but he resigned seven days later as he failed to prove
majority. RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav
enjoyed the majority.[citation needed]
2nd
Term (24 November 2005 – 24 November 2010)
In November 2005, he led the National
Democratic Alliance to victory in the 2005 Bihar
assembly elections bringing an end to the 15-year rule of the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal.
He was sworn in as the Chief Minister of
Bihar on 24 November 2005. Under his government, Bihar developed an
electronic version of the Right to Information
Act called Jankari scheme. In addition, he launched the E-shakti NREGS
program, by which rural people can get employment information by telephone. He
is credited with improving infrastructure, and reducing crime, widely felt to
be serious problems in the state.
Under his governance Bihar has had a
record number of criminal prosecutions through fast track courts. His
government initiated a mandatory weekly meeting with all District
Magistrates to monitor progress at the grassroot level. His
government has generated employment in police services and teaching. Bihar
recorded record construction work during his five-year mandate, surpassing the
national average.
Nitish Kumar government also
initiated bicycle and meal programs – the government gave bicycles to girls who
stayed in school – which saw Bihar getting huge number of girls into schools
and fall in school drop out rates.[13] Women and extremely backward castes
were given 50% reservation in electorals for the first time ever in India.
However, bicycle scheme of Nitish Government has been criticised by some people
because of corruption involved in the scheme.[citation needed]
Health schemes were launched to
improve village hospitals and the free medicine distribution system. Loan
schemes for farmers were improved by involving national banks.
The state witnessed steep hike in GSDP
growth, the second highest in the country. Bihar was recorded as the highest
tax payer state in eastern India.
Dr. Abdul Kalam, former President of India and
Nitish Kumar initiated the Nalanda International
University project, headed by the Prime Minister of India.
3rd
Term (26 November 2010 to 17 May 2014)
In 2010, Nitish Kumar's party swept
back to power along with its allies (at that time), Bharatiya Janata Party.
On 26 November 2010, Nitish Kumar took oath as a Chief Minister of Bihar. This
was his second consecutive term as Chief Minister of Bihar. In a keenly fought contest, Nitish Kumar led
JDU-BJP combine won 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. 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.
Resignation
On 17 May 2014, he submitted his
resignation to the Governor of Bihar
- a day after his party fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections, winning just 2 seats against 20 seats in the previous
election. Kumar resigned, taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor
performance in the election and Jitan Ram Manjhi took over.
4th
Term (22 February 2015 to till date)
Main article: 2015 Bihar
political crisis
Nitish Kumar took the oath as Bihar
CM for the fourth time on 22 February 2015 after the former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi
resigned on 20 February just a few hours before he was scheduled to prove his
majority in the state assembly.
Personal
life
On 22 February 1973, Nitish Kumar
married Manju Kumari Sinha, a teacher by profession. They have a son, Nishant,
who is a graduate of BIT, Mesra. Manju Sinha died in 2007 at the age of
53. Nitish's nickname is 'Munna'. He is a teetotaler, does not smoke, and is a frugal
eater. He is also known as 'Sushasan Babu' by
his fans and followers.
Biographies
- Sankarshan Thakur authored a book based on his life titled Single Man: The Life And Times of Nitish Kumar of Bihar.
Awards
and recognition
- JP Memorial Award, Nagpur's Manav Mandir, 2013
- Ranked 77th in prestigious Foreign Policy Magazine top 100 global thinkers 2012.
- XLRI, Jamshedpur "Sir Jehangir Gandhi 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 Hindustan Times State of the Nation Poll 2007.
- The Jankari Scheme, which is the electronic version of the RTI Act, was developed in the state.
- An NREGS program called E-Shakti was launched, with the help of which the employment information can be gathered by rural people over telephone.
Contributions
and achievements as Chief Minister of Bihar
- Infrastructural developments including roadways and bridges were successfully implemented.
- Crime rate reduced significantly.
- Scores of criminal prosecutions were held through fast-track courts under his governance.
- A mandatory weekly meeting was initiated by the government with District Magistrates to keep an account of the progress in the rural areas.
- Over one lakh teaching staffs were appointed.
- Employment in police services was generated.
- The government under his leadership initiated meals and bicycle programs. Bicycles were given to those girls who stayed in school. This move saw a high number of girls joining school and also witnessed a fall in the dropout rate of girls in school.
- For the first time in India, the Bihar government under his leadership initiated 50% electoral reservation for women and backward castes.
- Free medicine distribution and other health schemes were launched in rural hospitals.
- National banks were involved in different loan schemes for the farmers.
- The state recorded the second-highest GSDP growth in the country.
- The Nalanda International University project was initiated by former President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam and Nitish Kumar. The Prime Minister of India headed the project.
Positions
held
|
Period
|
Positions
|
Note
|
|
1977
|
Contested first assembly elections
on a Janata Party ticket.
|
|
|
1985–89
|
Member, Bihar Legislative
Assembly.
|
First term in Legislative Assembly
|
|
1986–87
|
Member, Committee on Petitions, Bihar Legislative
Assembly.
|
|
|
1987–88
|
President, Yuva Lok Dal, Bihar.
|
|
|
1987–89
|
Member, Committee on Public
Undertakings, Bihar Legislative
Assembly.
|
|
|
1989
|
Secretary-General, Janata Dal, Bihar.
|
|
|
1989
|
Elected to 9th Lok Sabha.
|
First term in Lok Sabha
|
|
1989 - 16 July 1990
|
Member, House Committee.
|
Resigned
|
|
April 1990 - November 1990
|
Union
Minister of State, Agriculture and Co-operation.
|
|
|
1991
|
Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha.
|
2nd term in Lok Sabha
|
|
1991–93
|
General-Secretary, Janata Dal.
Deputy Leader of Janata Dal in Parliament. |
|
|
17 December 1991 - 10 May 1996
|
Member, Railway Convention
Committee.
|
|
|
8 April 1993 - 10 May 1996
|
Chairman, Committee on
Agriculture.
|
|
|
1996
|
Re-elected to 11th Lok Sabha.
Member, Committee on Estimates. Member, General Purposes Committee. Member, Joint Committee on the Constitution (Eighty-first Amendment Bill, 1996). |
3rd term in Lok Sabha
|
|
1996–98
|
Member, Committee on Defence.
|
|
|
1998
|
Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha.
|
4th term in Lok Sabha
|
|
19 March 1998 - 5 August 1999
|
||
|
14 April 1998 - 5 August 1999
|
Union Cabinet Minister, Surface
Transport (additional charge).
|
|
|
1999
|
Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha.
|
5th term in Lok Sabha
|
|
13 October 1999 - 22 November 1999
|
Union Cabinet Minister, Surface
Transport.
|
|
|
22 November 1999 - 3 March 2000
|
||
|
3 March 2000 - 10 March 2000
|
as 29th Chief Minister of
Bihar, only for 7 days
|
|
|
27 May 2000 - 20 March 2001
|
||
|
20 March 2001 - 21 July 2001
|
Union
Cabinet Minister, Agriculture with additional charge of Railways.
|
|
|
22 July 2001 - 21 May 2004
|
||
|
2004
|
Re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha.
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 2005 – 24 November
2010
|
as 31st Chief Minister of
Bihar
|
|
|
26 November 2010 – 17 May 2014
|
as 32nd Chief Minister of
Bihar
|
|
|
22 February 2015-till date
|
as 34th Chief Minister of
Bihar
|
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