Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951, Bakhtiarpur, Bihar, India) is the Chief Minister of the north Indian state of Bihar. He is the top leader of Janata Dal (United) party. His name may also be written Nitīś Kumār, following the Hindi orthography.

Kumar graduated from Bihar College of Engineering, now NIT Patna with a Bachelor\'s degree in Electrical Engineering. He was involved in the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974 and 1977, and was close, among others, to Satyendra Narayan Sinha, a prominent leader of the time.

He was first elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1985. In 1987, he became the President of the Yuva Lok Dal. In 1989, he became the Secretary-General of the Janata Dal in Bihar. He was also elected to the 9th Lok Sabha that year.

In 1989, he became the Union Minister of State for Agriculture in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh.In 1991, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha and became Gener... more