JDU MLA Ananth Kumar Singh on Sunday said that party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will resign from the post of MLC on Monday. Speaking to reporters, Singh said that when the party members were in shock, the Chief Minister decided to resign from the Bihar Legislative Council.
“Yes, he is doing so. Everyone wanted this (that he should not resign from the post of Chief Minister), but he did not agree…”, he said. On Tuesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was unanimously elected as the President of Janata Dal (United) as no other candidate had filed nomination for the post.
JDU leader Anil Hegde made the announcement during a press conference in the national capital, in which he gave details of the election process. He said that the last date for filing nominations was March 22, scrutiny of nomination papers took place on March 23 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations was 11 am today. Only Nitish Kumar’s nomination was in the fray, and he was declared elected unopposed.
However, earlier on March 5, Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections and extended “full support” to the new cabinet. The 75-year-old wrote an emotional message announcing his decision.
He expressed his strong desire to become a member of both the Houses of Bihar Legislative Assembly as well as the Houses of Parliament. He reiterated his commitment towards building a “developed Bihar” and assured his “support and guidance” to the new government. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) welcomed Kumar’s decision and lauded his return to parliamentary democracy.
Nitish Kumar’s political career is a classic example of coalition strategy, marked by a series of ideological shifts. Starting his journey as an MLA in 1985 and later serving as a Union Minister in the Vajpayee government, he first assumed the post of Chief Minister of Bihar in 2005 as a pillar of the NDA.
However, his tenure since 2013 has been defined by frequent changes in alliances, alternating between the BJP and the Grand Alliance (RJD and Congress) in 2013, 2017, 2022 and 2024. Despite these frequent changes, his political stability remains unmatched; Recently, he achieved a landslide election victory for the fifth time in 2025 and was sworn in as the Chief Minister for a record-breaking tenth time.
Kumar’s return to national politics could pave the way for the BJP to gain more clout in the government in Bihar and possibly even lay claim to the chief minister’s chair.
