Nitish Kumar to resign as Bihar CM? JDU chief likely to file Rajya Sabha nomination, say reports

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

• Nitish Kumar may step down as Bihar CM after Rajya Sabha election
• JDU chief's Rajya Sabha nomination fuels succession speculation
• NDA likely to win 4 of 5 Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar assembly

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A development that could have massive impact on Bihar's political firmament, JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, reportedly  may step down from the state’s top post after being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

News18 Hindi quoting sources confirmed that he will not continue as Bihar’s chief minister once elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha. The JDU chief is set to file his nomination for the upper house of Parliament on Thursday.

Nitish Kumar, 75, has taken oath as Chief Minister for a record 10 times. He has been in the hot seat since 2015, except for the brief period when Jitan Ram Manjhi was the Chief Minister.

He has spearheaded the campaign in Bihar -- be it for the NDA or the Grand Alliance Mahagathbandhan, wherever he happened to be.

The development triggered a flurry of questions about who will succeed him and what role, if any, his son Nishant Kumar will play in the new political arrangement.

Strengthening the conjecture, JDU’s national working president Sanjay Jha arrived in Patna from Delhi on Wednesday and held a long closed-door meeting with Nitish Kumar. Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh, was also reported to have made his way from Delhi to Patna.

At the heart of the new political manoeuvring is a complex arithmetic challenge around Bihar’s fifth Rajya Sabha seat. Winning a single seat requires the support of 41 MLAs.

The NDA’s combined strength in the Bihar assembly- comprising BJP, JDU, LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM and RLJM legislators- stands at 202, making four of the five seats virtually certain wins for the alliance.

However, the fifth seat presents a tighter calculation. Upendra Kushwaha has been named the NDA candidate for that seat but the nomination has already drawn attention after LJP chief Chirag Paswan indicated he was unaware of the decision. To eliminate any risk of cross-voting or absenteeism, all NDA MLAs have been summoned to Patna ahead of Thursday’s nomination filing.