Who Will Be BJP's First CM In Bihar?

'They will pick up anyone and place him or her on the CM chair.'

After Bihar's longest-serving Chief Minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha biennial election on Thursday afternoon, Patna's political pundits and punters are placing bets on which Bharatiya Janata Party leader will replace him as the state's chief minister.

The BJP has wanted to replace Nitish Kumar since 2020 when his Janata Dal-United party performed poorly in that year's Bihar assembly polls. It reined its ambitions then and allowed Nitish Kumar to continue as chief minister.

The writing was on the wall for Nitish Kumar after the JD-U came second after the BJP in the 2025 assembly election. Though Nitish Kumar was sworn in as chief minister on November 20, 2025, it was only a matter of time before the BJP made its move.

The Rajya Sabha election was an opportune time for the BJP leadership to convince Nitish Kumar to step down and return to central politics, which he abandoned after he became chief minister 21 years ago.

Among the BJP contenders for the post are current Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, Bihar Assembly Speaker Prem Kumar, Union Ministers Nityanand Rai and Giriraj Singh and Bihar Minister Dileep Jaiswal.

But there are other lesser known MLAs and MLCs, mostly belonging to the extremely backward castes, who could be picked by the BJP's most important leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. BJP national President Nitin Nabin, a Bihar native, will also provide his inputs for the decision.

Samrat Choudhary Emerges Top Contender

Local media believes that unlike Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where Modi-Shah picked political lightweights as chief ministers, they may prefer the high profile Samrat Choudhary, a former state BJP president, who is considered a favourite of Amit Shah.

His importance lies in the fact that Samrat Choudhary belongs to the Kushwaha or Koeri caste, an agrarian other backward caste, that is the second largest social group after the Yadavs in caste ridden Bihar.

During last year's Bihar assembly polls, Amit Shah announced that Samrat Choudhary will be made a 'Bada Aadmi' (big man) by Modi.

After the National Democratic Alliance led by Nitish Kumar returned to power with a thumping majority and the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar assembly for the first time, the BJP got the most important home portfolio.

This had never happened before in the 20 years when Nitish led the government either in alliance with the BJP or the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The BJP chose Samrat Choudhary to head the home department that is responsible for law and order as well as controling the police.

Before joining the BJP eight years ago Samrat Choudhary was in the RJD and JD-U and does not have an RSS pedigree like the other deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha, who belongs to the powerful landed Bhumihar upper caste.

Nityanand Rai Is Close To Amit Shah

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, who belongs to the same caste as RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, is considered close to Amit Shah, the Cabinet minister in charge of the Union home ministry.

Rai is seen as a leader with the potential to dent Lalu's traditional Yadav social support base.

Another name doing the rounds is Prem Kumar, who has won the Gaya assembly seat since 1990 without a break, and was elected unopposed as speaker of the Bihar assembly last November.

Prem Kumar belongs to the Chandravanshi caste, an extremely backward caste; for the BJP, EBCs matter more than the OBCs because they are a big vote bank.

A senior BJP leader told this correspondent that no one can say with confidence who will become the next CM.

"No doubt there are several capable BJP leaders for the post but the party's top leadership will decide," he pointed out.

"They will pick up anyone and place him or her on the CM chair".

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff