India, March 5 -- Even a cat has only nine lives, they say. Nitish Kumar was in his tenth life as the chief minister of Bihar when he assumed office in November last year. Turns out it was only nine point something. With Nitish filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha, which is also referred to as the house of elders in political lingo, on Thursday, it is curtains on a political career which dominated Bihar for the last two decades.

What awaits Bihar in terms of Nitish's successor is still not clear. The grapevine in Patna - where thanks to Nitish, the only high is politics and not the stuff made from grapes or grain or molasses - has it that the new chief minister will likely be a person from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In terms ...