Nitish Kumar among top 10 longest-serving chief ministers

No chief minister in the country would have taken oath as many times as Bihar’s longest-serving CM Nitish Kumar, who was sworn in for a record 10th term on Thursday.

At 74, Kumar also achieved another milestone of extending his 19-year stint as CM and breaking into the national top-10 list of longest-serving heads of government.

Kumar assumed office as chief minister in a grand swearing-in ceremony at Patna's Gandhi Maidan in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, besides several top NDA leaders.

Born in 1951 in Bihar's Bakhtiyarpur, Kumar entered politics during the JP Movement. He joined the Janata Party and unsuccessfully contested his first assembly elections in 1977. His first electoral victory was in 1985.

His frequent switching of sides in his nearly five-decade-long political career earned him the nickname 'Paltu Ram', whereas he is also called 'Sushashan Babu' for his good governance.

As the country's political landscape turns another page, Kumar joins the ranks of the nation’s 10 longest-serving CMs, a list dominated for decades by stalwarts such as Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim and Naveen Patnaik of Odisha.

List of long-serving CMs:

1) Sikkim: Pawan Kumar Chamling (Over 25 years) December 12, 1994 - May 26, 2019.

2) Odisha: Naveen Patnaik (Over 24 years) March 5, 2000 - June 11, 2024.

3) West Bengal: Jyoti Basu (Over 23 years) June 21, 1977 - November 5, 2000.

4) Arunachal Pradesh: Gegong Apang (Over 22 years) January 18, 1980 - January 19, 1999; August 3, 2003 - April 9, 2007.

5) Mizoram: Lal Thanhawla (Over 22 years) May 5, 1984 - August 21, 1986; January 24, 1989 - December 3, 1998; December 11, 2008 - December 15, 2018.

6) Himachal Pradesh: Virbhadra Singh (Over 21 years) April 8, 1983 - March 5, 1990; December 3, 1993 - March 24, 1998; March 6, 2003 - December 30, 2007; December 25, 2012 - December 27, 2017.

7) Tripura: Manik Sarkar (Over 19 years) March 11, 1998 - March 9, 2018.

8) Bihar: Nitish Kumar (About 19 years) March 3, 2000, to March 11, 2000; November 24, 2005, to May 20, 2014, and February 22, 2015, to November 19, 2025.

9) Tamil Nadu: M Karunanidhi (Over 18 years) February 10, 1969 - January 31, 1976; January 27, 1989 - January 30, 1991; May 13, 1996 - May 14, 2001; May 13, 2006 - May 16, 2011.

10) Punjab: Parkash Singh Badal (Over 18 years) March 27, 1970 - June 14, 1971; June 20, 1977 - February 17, 1980; February 12, 1997 - February 26, 2002; March 1, 2007 - March 16, 2017.