The Man Who Made and Broke Governments Just Quit Bihar
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar receives President Droupadi Murmu (Image credit Bihar Info dept)
Nitish Kumar’s Political Tryst With Destiny: The Man Called Sushasan Babu — and Poltu Ram
By NIRENDRA DEV
New Delhi, March 5, 2026 — A tryst with destiny cannot be postponed forever. That truth has now caught up with Bihar’s most durable political survivor.
Nitish Kumar’s filing of the nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election — marks the quiet close of a 21-year chapter in Bihar’s politics. The man Bihar came to know as Sushasan Babu, the good governance chief minister, was also never far from his other nickname: Poltu Ram, the master of political somersaults.
The Pivot That May Have Changed Indian History
Many political observers argue that the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would have been fundamentally different had Nitish Kumar stayed with the opposition INDIA bloc. His decision to walk back into the arms of the Modi-Shah duo on the eve of the general elections — at precisely the moment the BJP was haemorrhaging seats across Uttar Pradesh — is widely regarded as the single biggest blow the opposition suffered that cycle. Most fingers pointed at Rahul Gandhi’s handling of the alliance, but Nitish’s defection remains the inflection point.
Bihar’s Political Lineage
Bihar has never lacked for dramatic political figures. Jayaprakash Narayan brought down Indira Gandhi’s government. Karpoori Thakur defined the politics of social justice. Lalu Prasad Yadav ran the state for 15 years before a fierce anti-incumbency wave swept him out in 2005. Nitish Kumar then took over — and has now completed nearly the same 21-year stretch that once doomed Lalu.
RJD’s Manoj Jha has already made a pointed tongue-in-cheek reference to a Venezuela-style episode unfolding in Bihar. The parallel is hard to miss.
The Caste Equation and the BJP’s Long Wait
Bihar is one of India’s most caste-conscious political theatres, and Hindutva politics has found fertile ground here. Yet caste arithmetic alone never delivered BJP its own chief minister in the state. Even in the November 2025 assembly elections, it was Nitish Kumar — a Kurmi leader from a non-dominant caste — who served as the NDA’s face, and his personal image delivered the numbers.
“The new chief minister of Bihar will be from the BJP and the party’s parliamentary board will soon decide the candidate,” BJP national spokesperson RP Singh has confirmed.
Having a BJP chief minister in Bihar would represent a milestone comparable to the party’s breakthrough in Tripura. The road to that milestone, ironically, has been paved by Nitish Kumar himself.
There is also the matter of his son Nishant Kumar, for whom a deputy chief minister’s role is being speculated — though clarity on his political positioning remains elusive.
Sushasan Babu’s Report Card
The governance record is mixed. Bihar unquestionably improved under Nitish — infrastructure expanded, law and order stabilised, and the state shed some of its BIMARU-era reputation. Yet Bihar’s per capita income stood at just ₹32,227 ($351) in the year ending March 2024, compared to the national average of ₹1,06,744 ($1,165). Bihar remains one of India’s poorest states even as it wields outsized national political influence, sending 40 members to the 543-seat Lok Sabha from a population of approximately 127 million.
The Sushil Modi Footnote
No account of Nitish Kumar’s political journey is complete without Sushil Kumar Modi, his long-time BJP ally and deputy — a partnership observers once compared to the Vajpayee-Advani bond. The difference, as insiders note, was that it was almost always Nitish who walked away with the glamour and the prize positions while Sushil Modi played second fiddle. In 2020, the BJP central leadership pointedly bypassed Sushil Modi when naming deputy chief ministers, appointing Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi instead. Sushil Modi had tweeted stoically: “The BJP and the Sangh Parivar gave me so much in 40 years of political life. I will discharge whatever responsibility is given to me.”
Consolidation in Indian Politics
As Bihar prepares for its next chapter, one conclusion is hard to avoid. Nitish Kumar’s carefully managed exit — on his own terms, into the Rajya Sabha, with his legacy intact — sends a powerful signal about the consolidation of power in Indian politics. It is also reasonable to conclude that Nitish Kumar’s departure from Bihar’s executive politics has further reinforced Narendra Modi’s grip on the national political landscape.
Bihar’s tryst with destiny has produced another twist. It rarely disappoints.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are author’s own.)
Nitish Kumar: Politics, Protégé and the Question of Political Twilight
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