"This is a matter of great pride for our party and for the entire state," party general secretary Upendra Kushwaha said on Sunday. "In nine months, Nitish Kumar has shown the nation that his heart is in the development of Bihar. With his sheer doggedness and single-minded focus on issues concerning the state, he has earned the respect from people from all quarters," he said.

"It would not be an exaggeration to say that soon Bihar will become the number one state in the country," the JD-U leader said.

"Bihar, under the previous regime, was known for all the wrong reasons including high crime rate and backwardness in economic areas. Now people from other states are looking at Bihar with a new-found respect and Biharis are finally being recognized for their talent and hard work," JD-U legislator Lalan Paswan said adding the credit largely goes to the Chief Minister who is determined to extricate Bihar from its previous morass left by the 15-year old Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime.

The CNN IBN-The Hindu `State of the Nation poll' was conducted by the Center for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS) in 19 states with a participation of over 14,000 people including many in rural India.

While Nitish Kumar was voted in as the most preferred Chief Minister (CM) of an Indian state, Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik was ranked second, followed by West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Tamil Nadu CM K. Karunanidhi, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, Andhra CM R. Reddy, and Kerala CM V. S. Achuthanandan.