Benjamin Franklin ostensibly said once: “There are only two certainities in life – death and taxes.” Little did he know, there’s a third: Nitish Kumar taking oath as Bihar Chief Minister. Since his first oath when he lasted seven days, Nitish Kumar has taken oath as Chief Minister a total of nine times (six times as part of NDA and thrice as part of MGB), which means that much like Thanos, the election result might be in doubt but the oath-taking is inevitable. But beyond the political endurance test lies a strangely fascinating man. Here are ten remarkable facts about Nitish Kumar:
1. The engineer who nearly quit politics
Before he became the default CM of Bihar, Nitish Kumar was a mild-mannered engineer at the Bihar State Electricity Board. He lost his first two elections and, according to friends, seriously thought of abandoning politics for a business career. Patna’s voltage fluctuations may have been more predictable than Bihar’s politics, but he chose the chaos anyway.
2. “Munna” from Bakhtiarpur
His childhood nickname was “Munna” — and to his old friends, he still is. Not the Chief Minister, not the coalition negotiator, but the quiet boy from Bakhtiarpur who preferred books to people and routines to revelry. The name stuck longer than some of his alliances.
3. The no-dowry groom
When Nitish married Manju Kumari Sinha in 1973, he insisted on a no-dowry wedding — a radical stand in small-town Bihar of the 70s. It created friction in the family but he didn’t budge. For a man famous for political flexibility, this was one moment where he refused to compromise.
4. The wife who funded his first big campaign
When he contested the 1985 Assembly election, Nitish didn’t have money. Manju did. The schoolteacher quietly handed him her savings — about ₹20,000 — to run his campaign. Bihar’s future CM was, in a very literal way, financed by a government-school payslip.
5. Movie night with Amitabh Bachchan
Nitish Kumar is a proper, unapologetic Bollywood buff. In 2011, he even hosted a special screening of Aarakshan in Patna with Amitabh Bachchan in attendance. Big B flew in, Nitish showed up, and for one evening Bihar’s chief minister swapped files for films. If you ever needed evidence that cinema runs deep in Bihar’s cultural bloodstream, that moment says it all.
6. Teesri Kasam: his all-time favourite film
His close circle swears that his absolute favourite film is Teesri Kasam, the Raj Kapoor–Waheeda Rehman classic. And here’s the very Nitish twist: when he became CM, he had the government screen Teesri Kasam across rural Bihar using mobile cinema vans — complete with breaks for welfare-scheme announcements. Only Nitish could turn a beloved art film into a governance tool, even if it led to a copyright dispute.
7. Mere Mehboob on loop
The man who projects industrial-corridor seriousness in public has watched Mere Mehboob so many times that it became a long-running college joke. He has always had a soft spot for old Hindi romance — the Urdu dialogues, the gentle longing, the quiet heroism. For someone accused of being emotionally opaque, his movie choices say otherwise.
8. Masala dosa socialist
His food habits are famously austere — vegetarian, simple, lightly spiced, almost monastic. But tucked inside that ascetic diet is one small rebellion: his fondness for masala dosa and vegetarian Indo-Chinese food. Journalists on campaign duty have spotted him at Patna’s classic South Indian restaurants, eating dosa. Even his indulgences are middle-class.
9. The man with the wooden cot
Despite decades in power, Nitish’s personal quarters remain astonishingly bare: a wooden cot, basic chairs, a lone almirah. At a party event, he once served a minister food on a leaf plate and sat on the floor to eat. You can call it symbolism or simplicity — but it has been consistent for decades.
10. The non-dynast
Nitish and Manju had one son, Nishant — a software engineer who avoids politics with the dedication of a monk avoiding temptation. Party leaders push his name; Nitish deflects every attempt. After a lifetime spent railing against nepotism, he seems determined that the Kumar surname will not become an inherited office.Nitish Kumar’s politics may be the stuff of memes, nine oaths, and endless punchlines about “Paltu Kumar.” But the man behind the headline — the engineer who nearly quit, the husband who refused dowry, the cinephile who watches Teesri Kasam like scripture, the dosa-loving ascetic, the son who still garlands his wife’s statue — is far more layered. Death. Taxes. Nitish taking oath. And somewhere in between, one more rewatch of Mere Mehboob.
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