 "Lok Sabha elections 2024: Kingmaker Nitish Kumar's political flip-flops")
Nitish Kumar, born in 1951 in Bihar's Bakhtiyarpur, has been the chief minister of Bihar since 2005. Labelled as a seasoned politician, "paltu ram" by his former allies for frequently switching political folds, Kumar has positioned himself as the most relevant face of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 yet again after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party failed to replicate its 2019 win of crossing the 272 majority mark by itself.
Meanwhile, the Congress-led India is also carefully watching Nitish's moves as they hope to reforge their broken alliance with Kumar's Janata Dal (United) in a bid to potentially oust the Narendra Modi government.
To be clear on the numbers, the BJP-led coalition has gained 292 Lok Sabha constituencies in the elections, with the support of two main allies: Kumar's JDU (12) and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) 16 seats.
The Modi-led party has won 240 seats in the polls, jolted by the surprising comeback of Congress and the Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh. The two main Opposition parties won 43 constituencies in UP, marking a phenomenal revival compared to their 2019 performance, when they won just six seats in the state. Overall, the INDIA bloc has 234 seats.
Back to Kumar, the "kingmaker" Bihar CM is currently headed to Delhi, where he will soon join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance meeting to discuss the potential return of the Modi government for the third term.
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Whether he will stick to the NDA fold this time is an answer only he might know, but meanwhile, a look at his past flip-flops and political journey:
Nitish Kumar's first full term as CM
1) When Kumar first began his five-year journey as the Bihar CM in 2005, his swearing-in ceremony was a historic feat. It ended the 15-year rule of the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD. Before that, he was the Union Railway Minister from 2001 to 2004 in the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government.
2) An electrical engineer from Bihar College of Engineering, Kumar has been active in politics since his student days. He won his first election to the state assembly from Harnaut in 1985 on the ticket of the Janata party, headed by Satyendra Narain Sinha.
When Nitish served as CM for seven days
3) In 1996, he switched his loyalty to the BJP after winning his first Lok Sabha seat from Barh. Before his full term, Nitish also served as Bihar CM for a little over seven days in March 2000.
When Nitish ended 17-year-old ties with BJP
4) In 2013, Nitish severed JD(U) 's 17-year-old alliance with the BJP, which was its ruling coalition partner at the time. He joined the grand alliance comprising the RJD and Congress but switched back to the NDA again in 2017.
BJP-JD(U) performance in 2019, 2020 polls
5) The BJP-JD(U) coalition fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning a thumping majority of 39 out of the 40 seats in Bihar. They also won the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections together. In 2022, the coalition parted ways yet again, and Nitish formed the government with the grand alliance with RJD's Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy.
Nitish's latest 'ghar wapsi' to NDA
6) After 18 months, the JD(U) returned to the NDA fold in January, severing ties with the grand alliance patterns and retook the oath as the Bihar CM for the ninth time on January 28.