The man who brought Lalu down
Kumar's first stint in the Bihar assembly was in 1985. He headed the Bihar unit of the Yuva Lok Dal from 1987 to 1989.
From 1989 to 1990, Kumar was minister of state for agriculture and cooperation in then prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh's government.
He was the Bihar Janata Dal general secretary in 1989 and its national general secretary from 1991 to 1993.
Like Lalu, Kumar's political USP was that he was a leader of the backward castes. In Kumar's case, he was the political force of the not-so-backward Kurmi caste.
He won the 1990 Lok Sabha election from Barh, and was re-elected in 1991 and 1996.
Image: As railways minister, Kumar's contribution was creating the Hajipur Zone by bifurcating Eastern Railway
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