Meet Rajesh Kumar: Dalit Leader, Bihar Congress Chief Who Fought From Kutumba

Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Kumar contested the assembly elections from the Kutumba constituency. The seat, reserved for the Scheduled Castes, is in the Aurangabad district. Kumar is a two-time MLA from the constituency.

The Bihar 2025 assembly elections were scheduled for November 6 and 11. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.

Who Is Rajesh Kumar?

1. Rajesh Kumar was born on January 5, 1969, in Obra, Aurangabad district. He is the son of Dilkeshwar Ram, a two-time state minister between 1980 and 1985. Kumar belongs to the Ravidas community, which makes up about 5 per cent of Bihar's Scheduled Caste population. He completed his graduation in 1989 from St Columba's College, Hazaribagh. Alongside his political career, he runs his own business.
2. Rajesh Kumar began his political journey under the guidance of his father. He first contested, unsuccessfully, in the October 2005 Bihar elections as an Independent candidate.
3. During the early years of his political career, he remained in the shadows of senior Dalit leaders such as Ashok Ram and former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Ashok Kumar Choudhary. In the 2010 Assembly polls, he contested as a Congress nominee but lost again. Kumar gradually rose within the Congress ranks, serving as the head of the BPCC's SC/ST cell for 10 years and as the Bihar general secretary from 2010 to 2016.
4. Rajesh Kumar was first elected to the Bihar Assembly in 2015 from Kutumba. He defeated his nearest rival, Santosh Suman Manjhi, of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), by a margin of 10,098 votes. He retained the seat in the 2020 Assembly elections, defeating Shravan Bhuyan of HAM(S) by 16,653 votes.
5. In March 2025, Rajesh Kumar was appointed as the president of the Bihar unit of Congress by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge. The 56-year-old became the first Dalit leader in eight years to head the BPCC.