Law Kumar Mishra
March 30, 2026
On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his membership of the Legislative Council after 25 years, following his election as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Before him, leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Kripal Yadav, and Sushil Kumar Modi from Bihar have also served as members of all four houses (Assembly, Council, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha). It was a matter of fortunate coincidence that Nitish Kumar did not have to visit the Legislative Council to submit his resignation.
The Chairman of the Council himself, Awadhesh Narain Singh, went to his residence at 1, Anne Marg. The resignation letter was already prepared; Nitish Kumar only had to sign it. In the politics of Bihar, Nitish has taken the oath of the Chief Minister’s office ten times at the Raj Bhavan over the last 25 years. Although he lost the assembly elections held in 1977 and 1980, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1985.
Nitish, who once lived in the outhouse of a bungalow belonging to a legislator from his own caste and Nalanda district in Patna’s Chhajubagh, now resides in a massive building at 1, Anne Marg, adjacent to the Raj Bhavan. This has been his home for the past twenty-five years. Nitish Ji, who once used to walk on foot to Fraser Road to deliver his press notes to newspapers, news agencies, and the Akashvani (All India Radio) center, now travels with a convoy of twenty vehicles. For someone who once lived in an outhouse, the public road from Raj Bhavan to Circular Road was closed twenty years ago for his security.
His old friends from engineering college recall that he did not even know how to ride a bicycle. Whenever he went to a friend’s house in Gardanibagh, his friend would ride the bicycle while Nitish would sit on the front bar (top tube). Nitish Ji himself shared this story with me while we were guests at a wedding in that same neighborhood.
When Nitish was in the Samata Party, he lived in financial hardship. On Fraser Road, he would drink tea and eat kachari (fritters) at an old tea stall located near the water tank with his district friends Vijay Krishna (former minister), Arun Sinha, and Hemendra Narayan. Nitish Kumar often wouldn’t have money; his friends would settle the bill.
His in-laws lived in Kankatbagh Colony, and his father-in-law was an engineer. Nitish Ji used to travel there by paying a four-anna fare in a shared auto-tempo. If he went to his village, he would travel to Bakhtiyarpur on a shuttle train, often standing in a packed compartment.
His old friend Vashistha Narayan Singh says he used to bring kurta-pyjamas from Delhi for Nitish.
I remember a personal anecdote of his: in 1986, he visited Somnath and Dwarka in Gujarat with a committee of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, accompanied by his wife and son, Nishant. I was stationed in Rajkot at that time. The committee was supposed to reach Rajkot by 8:00 PM but arrived at 12:30 AM. Despite the late hour, they were served hot food and received great hospitality, which left him very impressed.
