Patna: Nitish Kumar Chief Minister of Bihar announced his retirement from politics on Thursday saying that this would be his last elections. While addressing a rally in Purnia, the three-time CM and Janta Dal-United (JDU) chief said, “Today is the last day for the election campaign, day after tomorrow is the voting day and this is my last election. All’s well that ends well.” ALSO READ | Bihar Elections 2020: Battle Lines Drawn Between RJD-BJP For Raghopur Seat; Look At Key Candidates For Phase-II Polls

The Chief of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, has consecutively served as the CM of the state three times. Kumar a longtime Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) ally broke up from the NDA in 2014, after citing ideological differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He won the 2015 Bihar state assembly elections after allying with former Railway Minister and CM of Bihar Lalu Yadav. The alliance worked for around 15 months after which he went back with BJP in the state.

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Born in 1951, Kumar belongs to a socialist class of politicians. During his early years as a politician he was associated with the likes of Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, S. N. Sinha, Karpuri Thakur, and V. P. Singh, Kumar participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's movement between 1974 and 1977 and joined the Janata party headed by Satyendra Narain Sinha.

Kumar also served as the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in 1998–99, in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In August 1999, he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster, for which he took responsibility as a minister.

However, in his short stint as Railway Minister, he brought in widespread reforms, such as  internet ticket booking facility in 2002, opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters, and introducing the tatkal scheme for instant booking.