Drama enacted in Patna was rehearsed in Delhi… Nitish removed, next Chief Minister in doubt
NEW DELHI: Less than four months after being sworn in as Bihar’s Chief Minister for the 10th time, Nitish Kumar on Thursday (March 5) expressed his desire to enter the upper house of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). Nitish filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha at the Bihar Legislative Assembly office in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, and Vijay Sinha.
“Since the beginning of my parliamentary journey, I have always desired to become a member of both houses of the Bihar Legislature as well as both houses of Parliament. Keeping this desire in mind, I want to become a member of the Rajya Sabha in this election.” In fact, the drama enacted in Bihar was rehearsed in Delhi. A senior IAS officer of the state said, “Nitish ji wanted to remain Chief Minister for a few more years… But today he is being sent away…”
During the assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not agree on Nitish Kumar’s name as Chief Minister. This was a major controversy. The BJP considered contesting the elections without him politically risky. Nitish Kumar stated that the new government formed in the state would receive his “support and guidance.” He added, “The new government that will be formed will receive my full support and guidance.”
Nitish has been leading the government in Bihar for the past two decades, since he first became Chief Minister in 2005, with the exception of a brief stint between 2014 and 2015. Not only did the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the JD(U) contest an equal number of seats (101 each) for the first time, but the elections were also contested under the shadow of Nitish’s ill health and the BJP’s overt attempts to sideline him. The BJP was unwilling to declare him the NDA’s Chief Ministerial candidate. There were no joint rallies with Nitish, and the press conference to release the alliance’s manifesto lasted only 26 seconds, during which the Chief Minister did not utter a single word.
This comes just months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar Assembly elections in November, winning 89 seats. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 202 of the state assembly’s 243 seats, while Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) was reduced to 85 seats, less than the BJP. During the Bihar election campaign, Nitish had emphasized that the elections were being fought under his leadership. Now, with Nitish being pushed towards the center, the opposition’s allegations appear to be proven correct.
The move to remove Nitish from the state government and send him to the Rajya Sabha is also reminiscent of Maharashtra, where the 2024 state assembly elections were fought under the leadership of then-Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, but after the Mahayuti alliance’s victory in the state, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was made Chief Minister. In a statement on X on Thursday, Nitish said that he always wanted to serve in both houses of the Bihar Assembly and Parliament. He said, “For more than two decades, you have consistently trusted and supported me, and it is on the strength of this trust that we have served Bihar and all of you with complete dedication.”
In the Bihar Assembly elections, in addition to the BJP and JD(U) winning 89 and 85 seats respectively, other NDA constituents, including Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won 19 seats, Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) won 5 seats, and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) won 4 seats. Nitish Kumar’s departure to the Rajya Sabha has cleared the way for the BJP to have its own Chief Minister in the state. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fell short of a majority on its own, winning only 240 seats, with the JD(U) with 12 Lok Sabha MPs and the TDP with 16 MPs emerging as key NDA allies in forming the government.
2025 Assembly Election Campaign During the 2025 elections, the NDA alliance launched a slogan: “Nitish from 25 to 30 again,” meaning an appeal to repose trust in Nitish Kumar for the term 2025 to 2030. Although there was no official NDA chief ministerial candidate, it was almost certain that Nitish Kumar would become the next Chief Minister of Bihar, and this is precisely what happened after the elections.Women voters in Bihar have unwavering faith in Nitish Kumar. Just before the 2025 assembly elections, Nitish Kumar launched the Mahila Mukhyamantri Rojgar Yojana, under which financial assistance of ₹10,000 was provided to women in Bihar. This led to considerable controversy, but overall, Nitish Kumar’s image remained the NDA’s biggest electoral weapon in the 2025 elections. Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the Maharashtra formula had been replicated in Bihar.
After Nitish Kumar’s departure, political activity regarding the next Chief Minister of Bihar has intensified. The race for the next Chief Minister has been The frontrunner is Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, who belongs to the Koeri (Kushwaha) caste. Other names being discussed include Nityanand Rai, an OBC figure and a Yadav. Rai is a junior minister to Amit Shah at centre. Besides him, the names of MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia (OBC) and Pramod Chandravanshi, a minister in the Bihar government, are also being discussed.
