9 lives and counting: Nitish’s chief ministerial run in Bihar

Nitish Kumar has been elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar and will take oath as chief minister in Patna today. This is the tenth time he will be administered the chief ministerial oath in the state, the highest for any chief minister ever in India. Conventionally, Kumar, given the years he has spent as CM, should have taken oath only five times, not nine -- that would have put him ina club of 14 other such chief mit isters in India -- but his politics has been far from conventional.

- Nishant Ranjan

Kumar's first term as chief minister lasted just seven days in 2000 when his government had to resign after failing to muster a majority. He took oath for the second and third time after the October 2005 and 2010 assembly elections, when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a majority in Bihar. However, he quit as the chief minister after the Janata Dal