Kumar has not faced voters in the past 15 years in Bihar

Patna: The assembly elections in Bihar has turned out to be a straight contest between current chief minister Nitish Kumar and Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav.

But, what has drawn the attention of the masses is that while Yadav has gone to the voters to get his candidature cleared by them, Kumar who is National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s chief ministerial candidate is again out of the poll fray.

Kumar, who heads the Janata Dal United (JD-U), has never faced the voters in the past 15 years although he has been the chief minister since 2005. The last time, he got elected to the Bihar assembly was in 1985, well 35 years ago.

Kumar was not the Member of either Houses of the Bihar state legislature also when he took the oath as the chief minister of the state for the first time in 2000. However, he had to step down barely eight days as he failed to muster the required number in the House to continue on the chair.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) got the comfortable majority for the first time after the November 2005 assembly elections as Kumar took oath as the chief minister of minister for the second time. Strangely, this time again he was not the Member of any House in Bihar legislature; rather he was a member of the Parliament.

Did not contest

Curiously, after taking oath as the chief minister, he didn’t contest elections from any seat; rather he got himself nominated to the Bihar Legislative Council, Upper House of the state legislature. He was elected to the Upper House in March 2006 along with his deputy and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

Since then, Kumar has not faced any elections in Bihar and has got himself nominated to the Upper House every time after expiry of his six-year term. The last time, he got nominated to the Upper House was in 2018. Prior to getting elected to the Upper House, Kumar has been contesting elections from Nalanda, his home district.

Recently, Grand Alliance’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav challenged Kumar to contest against him from any seat of latter choice but the chief minister has not responded to his challenge so far.

Instead, the chief minister has been constantly questioning Tejashwi’s experience, educational qualifications and also slamming his father Lalu Prasad Yadav, for appointing his wife Rabri Devi as the chief minister before going to jail in a multi-million dollar fodder scandal. Kumar has also attacked Lalu for having nine children in the hope of a son, drawing criticisms from various quarters.