Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced his candidacy for the Rajya Sabha chairmanship as the Janata Dal (United) candidate, signaling the end of an era in the state just four months after he won a landslide in the assembly elections alongside its ally BJP which now looks set to have its first chief minister in one of the country’s most important electoral districts.
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Kumar, 75, filed his papers for the Senate elections scheduled for March 16, flanked by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and JD(U) leaders in Patna. The ruling National Democratic Alliance has an overwhelming majority of 202 votes in the 243-member assembly, and is in a comfortable position to guarantee Kumar’s victory.
But his unprecedented move to the Rajya Sabha, months after winning a historic fifth term (he was sworn in ten times, a record), creates a vacuum in state politics, which since 1990 has been dominated by Kumar and former Prime Minister Lalu Prasad. A senior JD(U) leader said on condition of anonymity that his son Nishant Kumar, who is likely to join, may be absorbed into the state government and may be elevated to deputy chief minister.
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State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said that Nishant formally joining the party was just a formality. “It will happen in due time,” he added.
As one of India’s longest-serving regional leaders, Kumar has ruled Bihar continuously since 2005 – except for a nine-month stint under his former partner Jitan Ram Manjhi – and most recently led the JD(U) to success in the 2024 general elections and 2025 state elections.
His successor is likely to be chosen from the BJP. The front-runners include Union Minister Nityanand Rai and Deputy Prime Minister Samrat Chaudhary, the BJP leader, who requested anonymity, said.
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Kumar expressed his gratitude to the people of Bihar for trusting him for more than 20 years, saying their support enabled him to serve the state loyally. “The strength of your faith and support has helped Bihar deliver a new dimension of development and dignity,” Kumar said.
He added that he had expressed his gratitude to the people on several occasions earlier.
Kumar said that from the beginning of his parliamentary career, he had a desire to become a member of both houses of Parliament as well as serve in both houses of the state legislature. “In this sequence, I would like to become a member of the Rajya Sabha in the elections that will be held this time,” he said on X programme.
Kumar assured people that his relationship with them would remain unchanged despite the move. He said that he will continue to work with the people to achieve the goal of building a developed Bihar. Kumar added that he would extend full cooperation and guidance to the new government taking charge in the state.
Besides Kumar, BJP president Nitin Nabin, JD(U) Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur, Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha and BJP state general secretary Shivesh Kumar also filed their papers. To win all five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar, the NDA requires three opposition legislators to counter-vote.
Kumar is expected to vacate the post of Prime Minister only after the nomination and election process is completed and he is sworn in as a Member of Parliament.
Shah described Kumar’s tenure as glorious.
“The Chief Minister of Bihar has also filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha. With this, after a long gap, he will re-enter national politics as a Rajya Sabha MP. Nitish Kumar served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from 2005 to date. His tenure was truly glorious. This period will be written as a golden chapter in the history of Bihar, shaping the entire gamut of Bihar’s development… Throughout his long career as an MLA, MP and Chief Minister, he said Shah: “His kurta was never stained, and his entire life was free of corruption charges.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav described the decision as a “betrayal” of the people’s mandate. “We have said from the beginning that the BJP will not allow Nitish Kumar to remain chief minister after the elections. This is exactly what happened. This development goes against the people’s mandate and amounts to betrayal of them,” he said.
The BJP is certainly the largest alliance partner in the state, with 89 members in the 243-member Assembly, against the JD(M)’s 85 members.
The BJP leadership is expected to balance multiple factors while selecting Kumar’s successor. The decision will not just be about seniority, but will also be about class representation, alliance stability, and the broader political message the party wants to send. The extremely backward classes and women – the two constituencies identified by his Kumar – are likely to figure prominently in the decision-making process.
Patna-based political observer Kushalendra Priyadarshi said one possibility is for the chief minister’s post to go to the BJP, and the JD(U) continues to hold key government posts, including that of deputy chief minister.
He added: “Such an arrangement would help maintain stability within the alliance at a time when a leadership transition could lead to uncertainty.” He said Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would likely try to capitalize on any discontent within the NDA, especially if the leadership change leads to friction between allies.
Kumar — who has served in both the Bihar assemblies, four terms in the Lok Sabha, and was a former Union minister for railways, agriculture and transport in the AB Vajpayee-led NDA government — is widely credited with transforming Bihar’s governance and building a unique appeal across regions, castes, gender and religion. Some of his signature moves—such as Prohibition—were controversial, but his strategy of integrating welfare with everyday governance, and assembling a voting base among smaller marginalized classes, yielded big rewards.
The 2025 Bihar elections have turned into a virtual referendum on Kumar’s rule with the opposition focusing on his health and erratic statements. But Bapu’s suchachan (good governance) status cast a heavy shadow over others, and a cash aid distribution program targeting women did the rest.
Born in Bakhtiarpur in 1951 to a middle-class family, Kumar was influenced by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia and entered the Bihar Parliament in 1985. He supported Lalu Prasad as leader of the opposition in 1989 and as prime minister a year later. The two had a falling out in 1994, and in 1996, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
On 3 March 2000, he became Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time, but his tenure was short-lived – just seven days – as he failed to prove his majority. He became Prime Minister again in 2005 and never looked back.
He has left the NDA twice: once for four years between 2013 and 2017, and again for two years between 2022 and 2024, allying with the RJD both times, but eventually returning to the fold.
Riding out of the socialist wave of the post-Emergency era, Kumar was one of the key players in Mandal politics. He won five consecutive terms in Bihar, swapped partners four times, suffered defeat without the BJP in the 2014 general elections and then recovered, emerging as an indispensable man in the only province that has not seen a BJP chief minister at the helm – until now.
