Nitish Kumar
Nitish Kumar (Hindi: नितीश कुमार)(born
March 1,
1951,
Bakhtiarpur,
Bihar,
India) is the
Chief Minister of the north Indian state of
Bihar. He is one of the leaders of
Janata Dal (United) party.
Kumar graduated from
Bihar College of Engineering,
Patna with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. He was involved in the
JP Movement led by
Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974 and 77. He was first elected to the
Bihar legislative assembly in
1985. 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 that year. In
1990, he became the Union
Minister of State for Agriculture. In
1991, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha and became General Secretary of the Janata Dal at the national level and Deputy Leader of Janata Dal in Parliament. He represented Barh parliamentary constituency (Bihar) in the Lok Sabha between 1989 and 2004. He briefly served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Railways and Surface Transport and then as the Minister for Agriculture in 1998-99. In August 1999, he resigned following the railway accident at Gaisal in North East India. In
2000, he was made the Chief Minister of Bihar but had to resign in 7 days. 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 Behari 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. He is the leader of the Janata Dal (United) Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha.
In November
2005, he led the
National Democratic Alliance to a victory in the Bihar Assembly elections bringing to an end the 15-year rule of the
Lalu Prasad Yadav-led
Rashtriya Janata Dal in the state.
|
Nitish Kumar on India Today |
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Biography on website of Lok Sabha
