Janata Dal (United) President Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister with over two decades in office, is moving to the Rajya Sabha and submitted his nomination papers on Thursday. The 75-year-old leader also affirmed that the new government in Bihar would have his complete backing.
The opposition parties hit out at Kumar, calling it “a betrayal of the people’s mandate” since Nitish’s exit means a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister of Bihar.
Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, alleged that the BJP has consistently opposed Dalits and OBCs and claimed that with Kumar stepping down as CM, the party would attempt to push its agenda in what he described as a socialist stronghold, according to PTI.
“The BJP has done a Maharashtra in Bihar. We have been saying from the very beginning that the BJP will not let Nitish Kumar remain the chief minister after the elections. This is exactly what has happened. This development is against the mandate of the people and amounts to a betrayal of it,” he stated.
He further alleged that the BJP had effectively “hijacked” Kumar, suggesting that this was why the veteran leader was now heading to the Rajya Sabha.
Accusing the BJP of being against OBCs and Dalits, Yadav claimed that the party does not want leaders from these communities to hold the top post and instead prefers a chief minister who would act as a rubber stamp for its central leadership.
Using a metaphor to illustrate his point, he said that although Kumar had been made to mount the horse like a groom, someone else was being made to take the wedding vows, implying that the real authority lay elsewhere.
“I had said — ‘Nitish ji is riding a horse like a groom, but is getting someone else to take the wedding vows,'” Yadav said.
RJD’s Manoj Jha says Nitish’s X post drafted in ‘Delhi Durbar’
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha alleged that the post shared by the JD(U) leader on He mentioned that the people of Bihar would respond to Kumar’s decision in due course.
“After reading that tweet, I can confidently say that he did not write it. The post has been prepared in Delhi. Even if you ask a 10-year-old in Bihar about the tweet, he/she will point at Delhi Durbar,” Jha said.
The RJD leader said that the JD(U)’s “core supporters” were feeling disappointed and hurt by the development. He remarked that he had previously maintained that this was not the end of the matter, adding that the party’s core base was unhappy with the decision. Jha further claimed that an improvised version of the “Shinde Model” was being attempted, but asserted that Bihar’s political landscape was different.
‘BJP has always deceived its alliance partners’
Nana Patole, a Congress MLA from Maharashtra, criticized the BJP, accusing it of “deceiving” its alliance partners after Kumar confirmed that he would file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections, as per ANI.
Addressing reporters, Patole compared Kumar’s situation to that of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who did not return as Chief Minister after the Mahayuti alliance secured a majority in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, despite the BJP emerging as the single largest party.
He said, “Maharashtra is the biggest example of this. Elections were fought under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, and the government came to power, but Eknath Shinde did not become the Chief Minister. In Bihar, elections were fought under the leadership of Nitish Kumar; they (the BJP) won there as well… Now he is being removed from the post of Chief Minister. The BJP has always deceived its alliance partners,” he said.
Kumar first became Bihar’s Chief Minister in 2000, but his government fell within eight days. He returned to office in 2005 and remained in power until 2014, when he stepped down following the JD(U)’s poor performance in that year’s Lok Sabha elections. However, he was later sworn in as Chief Minister again. Most recently, he took the oath of office in November 2025. In Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party is the senior partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
How BJP emerged as single largest party in 2025 polls
The BJP solidified its electoral performance by emerging as the largest party in Bihar for the first time, winning 89 of the 101 seats it contested in the 2025 polls. The NDA won 202 seats in the 243-member assembly, delivering a landslide victory against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan.
(With inputs from agencies)
