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Chanakya lives!

Awakash Kumar in Patna.

If Nitish Kumar was a modern day Chanakya, like the vengeful and crafty writer of the Arthasashtra, he finally let down his hair after retribution was his.

But unlike Chanakya, Nitish Kumar aspired to be, and became, king himself.

Nitish Kumar knew what he was doing when he resigned as railway minister on August 3, 1999, owning moral responsibility for the Gaishal train accident in which over 500 people lost their lives. For he won the 1999 Lok Sabha election and was again inducted into the Vajpayee government, this time as agriculture minister. He awaited his chance to shake up Laloo Yadav. He had told this correspondent that if the National Democratic Alliance came to power in Bihar, he would be the chief minister. He was right.

Nitish Kumar was born in Kalyanbigha village under Harnaut police station in Nalanda district on March 1, 1951.

His father, Ram Lakhan Singh, who died in 1978, was a freedom fighter and a respected Congress leader from Nalanda district and a noted ayurvedia doctor. Ram Lakhan Singh unsuccessfully contested the 1971 Lok Sabha poll as the Congress (O) nominee from Barh constituency.

While Nitish Kumar was the legatee to his father's political career, his brother Satish Kumar became a doctor in ayurveda.

Nitish Kumar was a bright boy and managed over 75 per cent marks in his matriculation and pre-university from the prestigious Patna Science College. He did his B Tech from Patna Engineering College in 1973. But he declined the government job offered to him due to his meritorious performance in academics.

During his college days, Nitish Kumar was influenced by the philosophy of the late Ram Manohar Lohia, the socialist leader.

"I joined the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha in 1967 and was soon nominated the Patna University convenor," he says, adding that he led a movement against academic anarchy in the university that lasted 67 days.

He actively participated in the 1974 Jaiprakash Narain movement and was jailed for 21 months.

He was one of the members of the all-important steering committee formed during the movement in the state against the Emergency of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. According to Nitish Kumar, the late Jaiprakash Narain treated him kindly till his death in 1979.

But after he lost the 1977 assembly election from the Harnaut seat despite a wave in favour of his Janta Party, Kumar was sidelined, not finding his way into the assembly even in the 1980 assembly elections as a Lok Dal candidate.

But Harnaut apparently woke up to his political talent in 1985 and elected him. Nitish quickly made his presence felt by raising human issues on the floor. The then leader of opposition in the assembly, Karpoori Thakur, had once prophesied that Nitish Kumar would make Bihar's fortune.

Soft-spoken, suave and well-behaved, the Samata Party leader was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in the 1989 elections. He defeated Congress heavyweight Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav in the Barh constituency and retained the seat in 1991, defeating another Congress stalwart and Tripura governor Sidheshwar Prasad. He won both times as the Janata Dal nominee. He served as minister of state for agriculture in the V P Singh government. When the Janata Dal first split in November 1990, Nitish Kumar was in the V P Singh faction.

He played a crucial role to make Laloo Prasad Yadav the chief minister in March 1990. It was again Nitish Kumar who helped Laloo Yadav become the leader of the opposition after the sudden demise of Karporri Thakur in 1988. Despite the sour of relations, Nitish Kumar claimed that he had no regrets for helping Laloo Yadav become the chief minister.

"At that time he deserved to be the leader of the Janata Dal legislature party," says Kumar.

But stung by Laloo Yadav's contempt for them, Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes deserted the Janata Dal in July 1993 and formed the Samata Party. In the 1995 assembly elections, the Samata Party, which contested in alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), projected him as Laloo Yadav's replacement. But the alliance was routed and it had to be satisfied with a mere seven assembly seats.

Nitish Kumar, however, managed an electoral alliance with the Bhartiya Janata Party in the 1996, 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections and the 2000 assembly polls. The tie-up paid expected dividends. He was nominated the Samata Party state chief just before the 1996 elections. Atal Bihari Vajpayee inducted him into the cabinet as the railway minister in 1998 and as agriculture minister in 1999.

Nitish Kumar is estranged from his wife, Maju Sinha, who he married in 1973. He returned all the gifts given to him by his millionaire father-in-law as dowry.

"I have 20 bighas of land in my native village; that is enough to run my family," he says.

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