Vikas Purush Nitish Kumar's task cut out after third straight victory in Bihar

PATNA: Having steered Bihar on the path of development for a decade now, Nitish Kumar has his task cut out as he begins his third innings as Chief Minister of the backward state while leading a coalition of his JD(U), Lalu Prasad's RJD and Congress.The 64-year-old leader, who resigned as Chief Minister on May 17 last year after JD(U) was almost wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls by Narendra Modi-led BJP, turned the tables with the masterstroke of aligning with Lalu Prasad and the Grand  Alliance led by him won a thumping majority of 178 seats in a 243-member House in the Assembly elections.While there was much speculation before the Assembly elections on whether the alliance will actually materialise, now the task before Kumar will be to carry forwards his agenda for governance along with the dominant parter RJD.Lalu Prasad had declared before the polls that Nitish Kumar will be the Chief Ministerial candidate for the alliance but there is already talk in political corridors that RJD could ask for Deputy CM's post.RJD is the biggest partner in the grand secular alliance with 80 out of the cumulative 178 seats. JD(U) has 71 MLAs and Congress 27.Lalu and Nitish, friend-turned-foe in state politics, sank their differences to revive an alliance that began over 40 years ago with a students' agitation which soon turned into a pan-India movement led by veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan Though Lalu got lucky in his very first outing



in the electoral arena, winning Lok Sabha poll in In 1994, he together with George Fernandes, the stormy petrel of the socialist movement, walked out of Janata Dal after Lalu plumped for fellow yadav casteman Sharad Yadav for party presidentship, and formed Samata Party, which joined hands with BJP ahead of the 1996 general elections.In years that followed, Sharad Yadav was also marginalised in Janata Dal, with Lalu gaining complete control over it.Later, Sharad Yadav faction of Janata Dal, Samata Party and Lokshakti of  of former Karnataka chief minister Ramkrishna Hegde merged to form Janata Dal (United) in 2003.After NDA lost the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Nitish shifted his focus back on Bihar once again where the Rabri Devi government was fast losing popularity.An OBC leader himself, Kumar returned to Bihar and launched himself into a sustained campaign against Lalu-Rabri dispensation. His efforts paid off and JD(U)-BJP combine formed its government in the state after the 2005 assembly poll with Kumar as Chief Minister.For the first time in many years, development became the buzz word as he got into a mission mode, completing pending infrastructure projects, recruiting over one lakh school teachers, and bringing crime under check. Teachers began to be seen in faraway schools and doctors in primary health centres. He introduced a scheme of free bicycles for girl students which sharply brought down the dropout rate. Kumar was soon hailed as