Key Points
- Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister and JD(U) leader, filed his Rajya Sabha nomination on March 5, 2026, with the announcement made at 11:30 am in Patna.
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah was present at the nomination filing, signaling full central NDA backing for the move.
- Bihar is the only state in the Hindi heartland where the BJP has never had its own Chief Minister, a situation that may now finally change.
- Several BJP leaders are in contention for the CM post, with Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Union Minister Nityanand Rai identified as frontrunners.
- Nitish’s son, Nishant Kumar, could be appointed as Deputy Chief Minister if the transition goes through.
- The Rajya Sabha polling is scheduled for March 16, with vote counting on the same day at 5 pm.
Nitish Kumar, 75, is Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister, having held office ten times since 2015, barring a brief period when Jitan Ram Manjhi served as CM. He has been instrumental in election campaigns for both the NDA and the Grand Alliance at different points, and maintained strong support among women voters through landmark initiatives such as the schoolgirls’ cycle scheme and the state liquor ban.
In his Instagram post before filing the nomination, Nitish Kumar reflected on over two decades of public service, saying his resolve to build a developed Bihar remains unwavering. He expressed a long-held ambition to have been a member of both houses of the state legislature and both houses of Parliament, and called his Rajya Sabha bid the fulfillment of that personal goal.
The Push From Delhi
Hectic discussions unfolded in JD(U) circles ahead of the filing. The party’s national working president, Sanjay Jha, traveled from New Delhi to Patna and held a long, closed-door meeting with Nitish on March 4. A leader close to Kumar told reporters, “It is time to mourn. Everything has been decided in Delhi,” suggesting the move was driven by central BJP leadership rather than Nitish’s own preference.
Among the proposals discussed was the possibility of sending Nishant Kumar to the Rajya Sabha instead of Nitish, allowing the Chief Minister to continue his record tenth term. Nitish loyalists within JD(U) reportedly favored this option, while the BJP-aligned faction pushed for the veteran to move to the upper house.
The Race for Bihar’s Next CM
JD(U) supporters and BJP loyalists are engaged in a quiet power struggle, with caste-based voting patterns and alliances shaping the prospects of Samrat Choudhary, Sanjiv Chaurasiya, and Nityanand Rai as they jostle for the Chief Minister’s chair.
It is anticipated that the next Chief Minister will effectively be Nitish’s choice, as the BJP would not want to signal publicly that it engineered his departure, particularly with Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due in 2027.
Meanwhile, Nishant Kumar is emerging as a new force in Bihar politics, with his potential entry as Deputy CM signaling a possible break from the state’s long-standing tradition of keeping dynastic politics at arm’s length.
Rajya Sabha Seats and the NDA Math
There are five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar in play. For four of those seats, a candidate needs the support of 41 MLAs. With the NDA commanding a combined strength of 202 legislators in the Bihar assembly, comprising BJP, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), HAM, and RLJM, it is expected to comfortably win those four seats. The fifth seat is more contested, as Upendra Kushwaha has been named the NDA candidate, a move LJP chief Chirag Paswan claimed he was unaware of, raising the risk of cross-voting that NDA leaders must now resolve.
