The Perfect Ten

With a massive assembly poll win, the '10-time CM' not only cocked a snook at critics, but recentred himself as the main architect of Bihar's next act

- AMITABH SRIVASTAVA

For two decades, politics in Bihar has been riven by tempests, many seemingly designed to write him off.

Yet Nitish Kumar has had an uncanny gift of inveigling himself back to the seat of power—and invariably on his own terms. But when he took the chief minister's oath for the 10th time in 2025, it was not on account of any crafty pivot between allies. Instead, what left everyone astounded this time was a bonafide piece of electoral magic: he led his party, the Janata Dal (United), and its NDA allies to 202 seats out of 243, a victory that was near-imperial in its sweep.

Amazingly, this was a tsunami that came against the tide, as it were. As the race began, his chief ally, the BJP, was hesitant to name him the CM candidate, even as adversaries—from Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal to Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj—cast aspersions on his health and dismissed him as a relic. Yet he returned with a bang, and the JD(U) is now only second to ally BJP in the assembly (85 to the latter's 89 seats).