The Chanakya of Patna

After a crushing win, Bihar’s long-time chief returns with renewed mandate and a reminder of his political agility.

Nitish Kumar has been declared many things over the years: wily survivor, serial shapeshifter, ‘sushasan babu,’ ‘Mr. Clean’ and, more recently, a fading star. But when the results flashed on Friday evening as the NDA sweeping past the 200-seat mark in the 243-member Assembly, one line captured the mood from Patna’s bylanes to its party offices: “Bihar ka ek hi star, Nitish Kumar.”

It was both a triumphant roar and an affectionate homage to a man who has become synonymous with Bihar’s political imagination. At 74, and set now for his tenth innings as chief minister, Nitish Kumar has once again proved that in a state famed for volatility, he alone remains the constant.

The verdict, said NDA leaders, was not merely a political sweep but an endorsement of a joint legacy: two decades of NDA stewardship in Bihar and eleven years of the Modi government at the Centre. Voters, they insisted, had accepted Narendra Modi’s development philosophy and reaffirmed Nitish Kumar as “the tallest leader in Bihar.”

It is hard to quarrel with the scale of the win. The JD(U), written off by sections of the commentariat as an ageing party led by an ailing chief, nearly doubled its tally from 2020, surging from 43 to 85 seats. The BJP held firm as the anchor of the alliance. The combined effect was a tidal wave of pro-incumbency that confounded predictions of voter fatigue, anti-Nitish sentiment and creeping instability within the NDA itself.

If Nitish appeared subdued during the campaign - less fiery than in previous years and careful with his words, it was a deliberate choice. He did not dabble in rabble-rousing or provocative rhetoric. Instead, he fell back on his usual staples of good governance and development.

His campaign was, nonetheless, relentless. He launched it on October 21 in Muzaffarpur; by November 9, he had addressed 184 public meetings. On a single day in late October, travelling by road, he covered all seven seats in his home district of Nalanda, a symbolic counter to whispers that ill health had eroded his stamina. The JD(U) rank and file, sensing the stakes, closed ranks in a way unseen in recent years.

The tone contrasted sharply with the BJP’s more combative messaging against Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, invoking the spectre of ‘jungle raj.’ Nitish’s criticism was more muted in contrast.

Nitish Kumar’s greatest asset is not charisma or rhetoric but reputation. Over nearly two decades, he has built an image of clean administration - an increasingly rare commodity in Indian state politics. No serious allegation of personal corruption has ever stuck. And even while his ministers have wobbled, he has not.

The ‘Sushasan raj (rule of good governance), a term coined during his early years of Chief Ministership, is a tag that has endured. Regular power supply, virtually free for large sections of society; a web of rural roads and state highways; the restoration of law and order after the anarchic 1990s; advances in girls’ education; and social reforms that often came ahead of their time: these have collectively created a reservoir of goodwill that neither his political flip-flops nor his periodic missteps have been able to drain.

Crucially, Nitish has built a coalition that defies Bihar’s caste logic. His own Kurmi community is small, but he commands loyalty across EBCs, non-Yadav OBCs, women and even upper castes. In the wake of his win, ‘Jiske saath Nitish, wahi rahega bhari’ (whichever side Nitish is on, that side wins), is not mere rhetoric. It reflects his rare ability to transfer votes wholesale to his alliances, regardless of their composition.

However, in the run-up to the polls, Nitish was dismissed in some quarters as a liability. His gaffes fed a narrative of decline. Rivals mocked him and even his allies winced. Yet the criticism seems to have galvanised his core constituencies. They closed ranks, rejecting the idea that their chief minister had become expendable.

The BJP, in turn, lauded him as an “all-weather friend” in a nod to the longevity of a partnership that has survived walkouts, reunions, and redefinitions.

Bihar’s verdict is many things: a rejection of the RJD’s nostalgia-tinged politics; an embrace of Modi’s development pitch; and, above all, a renewed affirmation of Nitish Kumar’s centrality. The NDA insists that he alone will decide his cabinet as the BJP knows that the mandate runs through him.

For a leader once thought to be limping to the finish, Nitish Kumar has returned not as a placeholder but as Bihar’s indispensable axis.