Overview
- S K Sinha, Bihar’s first chief minister, ruled for more than 17 years and died in office in 1961, a tenure surpassed only when Nitish Kumar overtook the mark in 2023.
- Under Sinha, Bihar passed the pioneering Zamindari Abolition Act in 1949, though weak implementation left landlessness largely intact and fed later social unrest.
- Sinha’s government laid foundations for major projects such as Bokaro Steel, Barauni Refinery, Heavy Engineering Corporation, DVC initiatives, and the Ganga-spanning Rajendra Setu.
- After Sinha’s death, Governor Zakir Husain named Finance Minister Deep Narayan Singh as a caretaker on February 1, 1961, a role he held for 18 days before the Congress Legislative Party chose Binodanand Jha.
- Deep Narayan Singh later left Congress to help form the Loktantrik Congress in 1967, served in a non-Congress state government, returned to Indira Gandhi’s Congress before 1972, and retired from politics in 1977.