India, Oct. 6 -- The two-phased (November 6 and November 11) assembly elections in Bihar will once again underline the importance of chief minister Nitish Kumar in the state's caste-based politics, with the 74-year-old veteran politician having an uncanny knack of bouncing back just when people start writing him off.

Despite him switching camps in the last five years, from the Grand Alliance (GA) to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kumar has remained pivotal to Bihar politics and that fact remains unchanged even as we head into the 2025 assembly elections.

His Janata Dal (United) is upbeat with the slogan "2025 se 2030, fir se Nitish", and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is backing him strongly, even as the Rashtriya Janata Dal ...