New Delhi, Mar 4: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Patna on Thursday, according to sources, indicating the state may get a new CM.
The JD(U) president is likely to file his nomination alongside BJP national president Nitin Nabin in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, they said. Filing of nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls will close on Thursday.
“JD(U) president Nitish Kumar and BJP national president Nitin Nabin will file their nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections on Thursday. Home Minister Amit Shah will remain present on the occasion,” a source in the NDA told PTI.
Asked if Kumar will also resign as Bihar chief minister, the source said it will happen in due course of time.
This comes barely about four months after Kumar, Bihar’s longest-serving chief minister, was sworn in for a record 10th term at a grand ceremony in Patna on November 20. The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief ministers of several NDA-ruled states, and senior alliance leaders following the NDA’s landslide victory in the state polls.
The BJP has named its party chief Nitin Nabin and its Bihar unit general secretary Shivesh Kumar as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls. NDA ally and Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha has also been nominated as a candidate for the polls.
However, the JD(U) is yet to officially announce its nominees.
On Tuesday, Bihar Rural Development Minister Shrawon Kumar told PTI, “On the eve of Holi, I have some good news to share with the people of Bihar. It has been some time since there have been demands, from within the JD(U) as well as from among the state’s youth, that Nishant, the son of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, join politics.
“Decks have been cleared for that, and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two,” he had said.
When asked whether the JD(U) supremo’s son, an engineering graduate who is in his 40s, could be one of the two party candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections, Shrawon Kumar said, “Anything is possible. All would be made known in a day or two after top party leaders sit down to discuss these things.”
Shrawon Kumar has been a close aide of the JD(U) supremo since the Samata Party days in the 1990s. (PTI)
