Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is set to resign as Bihar’s chief minister and as leader of the NDA legislative party, triggering a reorganization of leadership in both the JD(U) and the NDA. The JD(U) will elect a new legislative party leader at a meeting of its MLAs and legislative councillors scheduled at Nitish Kumar’s residence at 2 pm on Tuesday. The BJP, as the largest NDA partner, will also choose its legislative party leader to lead the coalition.
Bihar’s legislature is bicameral, so a party leader may be an MLA or an MLC; nevertheless the government must prove its majority in the Assembly, where MLAs are counted. With Nitish stepping down as JD(U) legislative party leader, the party will need to name leaders for each house. At present, Shravan Kumar is deputy leader of the JD(U) in the Assembly and Lalan Sarraf is deputy leader in the Legislative Council; the 2 pm meeting is expected to settle leadership slots.
Front-runners for the JD(U) legislative party leadership include Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Shravan Kumar. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the parliamentary affairs minister, is viewed as a close ally of Nitish and a key figure in government functioning. Shravan Kumar, the current deputy leader in the Assembly, is also a confidant of Nitish and shares regional and caste ties with him.
The new JD(U) leader will be the party’s principal face in the Assembly and could be nominated as Deputy Chief Minister in a BJP-led NDA government. Separately, the name of Nitish Kumar’s son, Nishant Kumar, has circulated in political discussions. Observers note a possible caste arithmetic: if Samrat Chaudhary (from the Kushwaha community) becomes Chief Minister, elevating Nishant Kumar (from the Kurmi community) to deputy could balance community representation within the Cabinet. The party’s choices announced after the meeting will determine Bihar’s next power configuration and the composition of the new state government.