Nitish Kumar To Make 10th Stint With Huge Mandate: A Look At His First Term, Which Lasted For A Week

Nitish Kumar is all set to take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the record 10th time. It is the second time in 20 years that NDA, under his leadership, has registered such a huge mandate crossing the 200 mark.

In 2010, the ruling alliance delivered its best performance with collectively winning 206 seats, sweeping the polls against Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD.

However, it was not always so pleasant forming the government for 'Sushasan Babu'. His first stint as CM lasted for just a week in 2000. Before coming to power in a thumping majority in 2005, the NDA, which included the BJP, Samta Party, and JDU, collectively got 122 seats in 2000.

Back then, the Assembly had 324 seats and the majority mark was 163. On the other hand, RJD, which emerged as the single largest party, got 124 seats.

The NDA had fought the election on Nitish Kumar's face, who was the Union Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Cabinet at the Centre.

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As both the opponents lacked a majority, Governor Vinod Chandra Pande invited Nitish Kumar to form the government, which was met with major criticism from the RJD.

Nitish Kumar formed the government with the backing of 151 MLAs, including those from the NDA and others, on March 3, 2000.

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Starting from the day of the formation of the government, both factions began political maneuvering to get the numbers. The MLA poaching was also widely reported back then. However, neither the RJD not Nitish Kumar-led NDA succeeded in getting the numbers, and the government finally collapsed on March 11, 2000.