BJP set to name new Bihar CM as Nitish steps down

More than a month-long speculation in the hyper-volatile political state of Bihar, the uncertainty over who will take over the baton from Nitish Kumar will end on Tuesday as a `new face’ from the BJP will take over the reins of Chief Ministership on Wednesday.

While BJP appointed Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the central observer to set in motion the process of naming the BJP’s wo/man as the next CM, outgoing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has convened a meeting of his cabinet on April 14.

Nitish, who has just made his foray into the Rajya Sabha, will tender his resignation as CM and then proceed to hand over to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain at the Raj Bhawan.

Sources said by Tuesday late afternoon, the BJP will announce its CM candidate, as by then it will hold ¾ rounds of meetings with its legislators, as well as one with its NDA alliance partners like JD(U), LJP (Paswan), HAM, RLSP and others.

Over the weekend, after Nitish returned from Delhi following his Rajya Sabha oath ceremony, five rounds of meetings were held in both the BJP and JDU, including one with all NDA stakeholders, to reach a consensus on new responsibilities for the first BJP-led government in Bihar.

JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said that the process of formation of a new government was likely to be finalized within the next 24 hours while his party colleague and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, asserted “the new chief minister will be elected by the NDA, upon the recommendation of the BJP, which has a big role to play”.

Sources said while the suspense over the BJP’s name as CM remains a suspense, in any case, Nitish’s son Nishant will be one of the Deputy Chief Ministers as hard bargained by the JDU leadership.

While both, from the Centre as well as Bihar BJP leaders, are tight-lipped about the names, the caste factored leaders are spilling out names which, in any case, have never been met in the BJP, which at last comes out with a surprise factor. SevSeveral leaders, including one once considered to be a frontrunner, Deputy CM Samrat Chhaudhary, have been making frantic visits to Delhi recently, and guns are also trained against certain leaders from within the same party.

Other than Choudhary, who had joined the BJP less than a decade ago, those whose names are doing the rounds include Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, State ministers Lakhendra Paswan, Shreyasi Singh, Pramod Kumar Chandravanshi, and Rajya Sabha member Dharmshilla Gupta.

A source in the BJP said that the name of the new Bihar chief minister will be announced after the NDA legislator meeting in the state.