Nov 20,2025: After recording a landslide victory in India’s Bihar state, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar has taken the oath as chief minister.
Kumar’s party and its allies, which includes Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won 202 out of 243 seats in the polls.
Nitish Kumar, 74, one of the state’s most influential political figures, took office for a record 10th time.
Kumar has been Bihar’s chief minister for most of the last two decades, apart from a nine-month window between 2014 and 2015.
He was sworn in before a large crowd in Patna on Thursday, a day after his party’s legislators chose him as their leader and the wider alliance endorsed the decision.
This year’s voter’s turnout hit a record 66.91% – the highest since 1951 – with women voting in greater numbers than men. Polls were held on 6 and 11 November, and after counting on 14 November, Modi called the result “a victory for democracy”.
While the BJP secured 89 seats, Kumar’s party won 85. The remaining 28 seats were won by other alliance partners such as Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Their main rival was a coalition of India’s main opposition Congress party, the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several smaller parties, which collectively won 35 seats.
The Bihar polls were crucial as they precede elections next year in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu – states where the BJP is not in power and has struggled to gain ground.
After Nitish Kumar took oath, Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers. The Cabinet included senior names such as Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Mangal Pandey, Dileep Jaiswal, Shravan Kumar, and Bijendra Yadav. Before leaving the venue, PM Modi congratulated each of them.
