Chief Minister of Bihar
Bihār Mukhya Mantrī
Seal of the State of Bihar
Incumbent Nitish Kumar since 22 February 2015
Chief Minister's Office Government of Bihar
Style	The Honourable(Formal) Sir Chief Minister(Informal) His Excellency (diplomatic)
Type	Head of Government
Status	Leader of the Executive
Abbreviation	CMoBihar
Member of	Cabinet Bihar Legislature
Reports to	Governor of Bihar Bihar Legislature
Residence	Sribhumi,Assam
Seat	Patna Secretariat
Nominator	Members of theGovernment of Bihar inBihar Legislative Assembly
Appointer	Governor of Bihar byconvention based on appointees ability to commandconfidence in theBihar Legislative Assembly
Term length	At the confidence of the assembly Chief Minister's term is for five years and is subject to noterm limits.[1]
Precursor	Prime Minister of Bihar
Inaugural holder	Mohammad Yunus (politician) as Premier Sri Krishna Sinha as Chief Minister
Formation	26 January 1950 (76 years ago) (1950-01-26)
Deputy	Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar
Salary	₹215,000 (US$2,500)/monthly ₹2,580,000 (US$31,000)/annually
Website	Official website

Thechief minister ofBihar is thede facto head of the executive branch of theGovernment of Bihar, the subnational authority of the Indian state ofBihar serves as the head of theGovernment of Bihar, overseeing its administration and governance within the constitutional framework ofIndia.^[2][3] While theGovernor of Bihar holds the ceremonial role of the constitutional head, realexecutive authority rests with the chief minister, who is responsible for implementingpolicies and managing the state's day-to-day affairs. Appointed by the Governor following elections to theBihar Legislative Assembly, the chief minister is typically the leader of the majorityparty orcoalition in the assembly. Upon taking office, they form acouncil of ministers, assigning portfolios to manage variousgovernment departments. This council operates collectively under the chief minister's leadership and remains accountable to the legislative assembly. Responsibilities of the office include leadingcabinet meetings, drafting and implementing state policies, and presenting the annualbudget. In addition to maintaininglaw and order, the chief minister directs efforts towardeconomic development,public welfare, andinfrastructure improvement. Coordination with theGovernment of India and advocacy for Bihar's interests at the national level are also integral parts of the role. Chief Minister also serves as Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly.

Policy proposals and legislative initiatives are often introduced under the chief minister's guidance, shaping the government's agenda in the assembly. Administrative oversight is another key function, ensuring government departments and officials deliverpublic services efficiently and in line with policy objectives. The position carries a five-year term, concurrent with the tenure of thelegislative assembly. However, tenure depends on retaining the confidence of the assembly, as the chief minister can be removed through avote of no confidence. There are noterm limits, allowing for multiple consecutive or non-consecutive terms. Since its establishment in 1946, the office has grown in influence, reflecting shifts in state politics and governance. The role has become central to Bihar's administration, with successive holders contributing to the state'slegislative,economic, andsocial development efforts.^[1]

From 1946, 23 people have been chief minister of Bihar. The current holder of the position isNitish Kumar, who has served as the chief minister since 22 February 2015. He is also the longest serving chief minister of Bihar.^[4]

The chief minister serves five years in the office. The following is the oath of the chief minister of state:

I, <Name of Chief Minister>, do swear in the name of God/solemnly affirm that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, that I will faithfully and conscientiously discharge my duties as a Minister for the State of () and that I will do right to all manner of people in accordance with the Constitution and the law without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.

Before independence, Bihar was part of the largerBihar and Orissa province, which was divided into two separate provinces on 1 April 1936. TheGovernment of India Act 1935 introduced a bicameral legislature in Bihar, with aLegislative Assembly and a Legislative Council, headed by thePremier.Shri Krishna Sinha became the first Premier in 1937, leading a government formed by theIndian National Congress. He continued as Bihar's leader after independence, becoming the firstchief minister in 1946. The role of premier was replaced by the chief minister after India's independence in 1947, with Bihar's political leadership transitioning to a newdemocratic framework.^[5][6]

No.[a]	Portrait	Name	Term of office			Party
			Took office	Left office	Tenure
1		Mohammad Yunus	1 April 1937	19 July 1937	109 days	Muslim Independent Party
2		Shri Krishna Sinha	20 July 1937	31 October 1939	2 years, 103 days	Indian National Congress
			23 March 1946	14 August 1947	1 year, 144 days

Colour key for political parties

• No.: Incumbent number
• ^§ Assassinated or died in office
• ^RES Resigned
• ^NC Resigned following ano-confidence motion

#	Portrait		Chief Minister (Lifespan) Constituency	Term of office			Election (Term)	Party	Deputy Chief Minister(s) (Term in office)	Government	Appointed by (Governor)
1			Shri Krishna Sinha (1887–1961) Member, Interim Assembly (until 1952) MLA forBasantpur (1952–1957) MLASheikhpura (from 1957)	15 August 1947	31 January 1961[†]	13 years, 169 days	1946 (Interim)	Indian National Congress	Anugrah Narayan Sinha (26 Jan. 1950 – 5 Jul. 1957) Position vacant (5 Jul. 1957 – 31 Jan. 1961)	Shri Krishna I	Jairamdas Daulatram
							1952 (1st)			Shri Krishna II	Madhav Shrihari Aney
							1957 (3rd)			Shri Krishna III	R. R. Diwakar
2			Deep Narayan Singh (1894–1977) MLA forHajipur	1 February 1961	18 February 1961	17 days			Position vacant (31 Jan. 1961 – 5 Mar. 1967)	Deep	Zakir Husain
3			Binodanand Jha (1900–1971) MLA forRajmahal	18 February 1961	2 October 1963	2 years, 226 days				Jha I
							1962 (3rd)			Jha II
4			Krishna Ballabh Sahay (1898–1974) MLA forPatna West	2 October 1963	5 March 1967	3 years, 154 days				Sahay	M. A. Ayyangar
5			Mahamaya Prasad Sinha (1909–1987) MLA forPatna West	5 March 1967	28 January 1968	329 days	1967 (4th)	Jana Kranti Dal	Karpoori Thakur (5 Mar. 1967 – 28 Jan. 1968)	Mahamaya
6			Satish Prasad Singh (1936–2020) MLA forParbatta	28 January 1968	1 February 1968	4 days		Shoshit Dal	Jagdeo Prasad (28 Jan. 1968 – 1 Feb. 1968)	Satish	Nityanand Kanungo
7			B. P. Mandal (1918–1982) MLC	1 February 1968	22 March 1968	50 days			Position vacant (1 Feb. 1968 – 29 Jun. 1968)	Mandal
8			Bhola Paswan Shastri (1914–1984) MLA forKorha	22 March 1968	29 June 1968	99 days		Indian National Congress		Shastri I
President's rule was imposed in during the period (29 June 1968 – 26 February 1969)
9			Harihar Singh (1925–1994) MLA forNayagram	26 February 1969	22 June 1969	116 days	1969 (5th)	Indian National Congress	Position vacant (26 Feb. 1969 – 4 Jul. 1969)	Harihar	Nityanand Kanungo
(8)			Bhola Paswan Shastri (1914–1984) MLA forKorha	22 June 1969	4 July 1969	12 days		Indian National Congress (O)		Shastri II
President's rule was imposed in during the period (6 July 1969 – 16 February 1970)
10			Daroga Prasad Rai (1922–1981) MLA forParsa	16 February 1970	22 December 1970	309 days	– (5th)	Indian National Congress (R)	Position vacant (16 Feb. 1970 – 2 Jun. 1971)	Rai	Nityanand Kanungo
11			Karpoori Thakur (1924–1988) MLA forSamastipur	22 December 1970	2 June 1971	162 days		Socialist Party		Thakur I
(8)			Bhola Paswan Shastri (1914–1984) MLA forKorha	2 June 1971	9 January 1972	221 days		Indian National Congress (R)	Ram Jaipal Singh Yadav (2 Jun. 1971 – 9 Jan. 1972)	Shastri III	D. K. Barooah
President's rule was imposed in during the period (9 January – 19 March 1972)
12			Kedar Pandey (1920–1982) MLA forNautan	19 March 1972	2 July 1973	1 year, 105 days	1972 (6th)	Indian National Congress (R)	Position vacant (19 Mar. 1972 – 30 Apr. 1977)	Pandey	D. K. Barooah
13			Abdul Ghafoor (1918–2004) MLC	2 July 1973	11 April 1975	1 year, 283 days				Ghafoor	R. D. Bhandare
14			Jagannath Mishra (1937–2019) MLA forJhanjharpur	11 April 1975	30 April 1977	2 years, 19 days				Mishra I
President's rule was imposed in during the period (30 April – 24 June 1977)
(11)			Karpoori Thakur (1924–1988) MLA forPhulparas	24 June 1977	21 April 1979	1 year, 301 days	1977 (7th)	Janata Party	Position vacant (24 Jun. 1977 – 17 Feb. 1980)	Thakur II	Jagannath Kaushal
15			Ram Sundar Das (1921–2015) MLA forSonpur	21 April 1979	17 February 1980	302 days				Das
President's rule was imposed in during the period (14 February – 8 June 1980)
(14)			Jagannath Mishra (1937–2019) MLA forJhanjharpur	8 June 1980	14 August 1983	3 years, 67 days	1980 (8th)	Indian National Congress (I)	Position vacant (8 Jun. 1980 – 28 Mar. 1995)	Mishra II	A. R. Kidwai
16			Chandrashekhar Singh (1927–1986) MLC	14 August 1983	12 March 1985	1 year, 210 days				Chandrashekhar
17			Bindeshwari Dubey (1921–1993) MLA forShahpur	12 March 1985	13 February 1988	2 years, 338 days	1985 (9th)			Dubey
18			Bhagwat Jha Azad (1922–2011) MLC	13 February 1988	10 March 1989	1 year, 25 days				Azad	P. Venkatasubbaiah
19			Satyendra Narayan Sinha (1917–2006) MLC	11 March 1989	6 December 1989	270 days				Satyendra	Jagannath Pahadia
(14)			Jagannath Mishra (1937–2019) MLA forJhanjharpur	6 December 1989	10 March 1990	94 days				Mishra III
20			Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 1948) MLC	10 March 1990	28 March 1995	5 years, 18 days	1990 (10th)	Janata Dal		Yadav I	Mohammad Yunus Saleem
President's rule was imposed in during the period (28 March – 4 April 1995)
(20)			Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 1948) MLA forRaghopur	4 April 1995	25 July 1997	2 years, 112 days	1995 (11th)	Janata Dal	Position vacant (4 Apr. 1995 – 11 Feb. 1999)	Yadav II	A. R. Kidwai
								Rashtriya Janata Dal
21			Rabri Devi (born 1955) MLC	25 July 1997	11 February 1999	1 year, 201 days				Rabri Devi I
President's rule was imposed in during the period (11 February – 9 March 1999)
(21)			Rabri Devi (born 1955) MLC	9 March 1999	2 March 2000	359 days	– (11th)	Rashtriya Janata Dal	Position vacant (9 Mar. 1999 – 6 Mar. 2005)	Rabri Devi II	Sunder Singh Bhandari
22			Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MLC	3 March 2000	10 March 2000	7 days	2000 (12th)	Samata Party		Nitish Kumar I	V. C. Pande
(21)			Rabri Devi (born 1955) MLA forRaghopur	11 March 2000	6 March 2005	4 years, 360 days		Rashtriya Janata Dal		Rabri Devi III
President's rule was imposed in during the period (7 March – 24 November 2005) Elections were held to elect the 13th Assembly inFebruary 2005, but no government was formed.
(22)			Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MLC	24 November 2005	20 May 2014	8 years, 177 days	Oct. 2005 (14th)	Janata Dal (United)	Sushil Kumar Modi (24 Nov. 2005 – 16 Jun. 2013) Position vacant (16 Jun. 2013 – 20 May. 2014)	Nitish Kumar II	Buta Singh
							2010 (15th)			Nitish Kumar III	Devanand Konwar
23			Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 1944) MLA forMakhdumpur	20 May 2014	22 February 2015	278 days			Position vacant (20 May. 2014 – 20 Nov. 2015)	Manjhi	D. Y. Patil
(22)			Nitish Kumar (born 1951) MLC	22 February 2015	Incumbent	10 years, 360 days				Nitish Kumar IV	Keshari Nath Tripathi
							2015 (16th)		Tejashwi Yadav (24 Nov. 2015 – 26 Jul. 2017)	Nitish Kumar V	Ram Nath Kovind
									Sushil Kumar Modi (27 Jul. 2017 – 16 Nov. 2020)	Nitish Kumar VI	Keshari Nath Tripathi
							2020 (17th)		Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi (16 Nov. 2020 – 9 Aug. 2022)	Nitish Kumar VII	Phagu Chauhan
									Tejashwi Yadav (10 Aug. 2022 – 28 Jan. 2024)	Nitish Kumar VIII
									Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary (since 28 Jan. 2024)	Nitish Kumar IX	Rajendra Arlekar
							2025 (18th)			Nitish Kumar X	Arif Mohammad Khan

• Bihar
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• List of deputy chief ministers of Bihar

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One of the achievements of the Bihar Government is that they have launched a Medhasoft Application for the students so that deserving students in the state get scholarships and the amount will be directly transferred to their account. However, in order to get this, school authorities have to upload all their student's details in the Medhasoft web portal.

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