Bihar likely to get a new CM today: Who will BJP pick as its first ever chief minister?

Bihar is likely to get a new Chief Minister today. Nitish Kumar , after nearly two decades in power, is set to step down and make way for a BJP leader to take charge. The 75-year-old JD(U) patriarch , freshly sworn in as a Rajya Sabha MP just days ago, will chair his final cabinet meeting on April 14 at 11 am , then drive to Raj Bhavan to hand his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain . Kumar himself has said the new government will have his full cooperation and guidance, but it is, unmistakably, the end of a political reign that shaped Bihar for nearly two decades.

Into this vacuum steps the BJP, umbrella-holder of the NDA's 202-seat supermajority in the 243-member assembly. Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been named the party's central observer to set the process in motion, with multiple rounds of meetings slated with BJP legislators, followed by consultations with NDA alliance partners JD(U), LJP (Paswan), HAM, and RLSP, before a name is formally announced by Tuesday evening.

The question burning through every political corridor in Patna: who gets the crown? Two names dominate the conversation, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai . Choudhary is widely seen as the frontrunner, and posters declaring him the next CM have already appeared outside BJP's Patna office. A Koeri by caste, his elevation would preserve the influential “Luv-Kush” (Kurmi-Koeri) equation that Nitish Kumar so carefully cultivated over two decades. Choudhary accompanied Nitish to Delhi for his Rajya Sabha oath and has been meeting him regularly over the past week, a signal, many believe, of a smooth transition.

Yet doubts linger. Critics within the BJP note that Choudhary joined the party only in 2017, having previously served in Rabri Devi's RJD government and later in Nitish Kumar's JD(U) cabinet, a background that makes hardline Sangh Parivar members uneasy.

Nityanand Rai , meanwhile, brings deep organisational roots and a Yadav identity that could help the BJP make inroads into a voter base long loyal to Lalu Prasad's RJD. A former Bihar BJP president and ABVP veteran from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Rai represents a more ideologically firm, if strategically bold, option. Other names in circulation include Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha , state ministers Lakhendra Paswan and Shreyasi Singh , and BJP MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia , each carrying their own caste arithmetic and factional weight.

Party sources have been categorical that the new CM will most likely be OBC or Dalit , a strategic move as the BJP looks to consolidate communities shaped by the Mandal politics of the 1990s, while banking on its traditional upper-caste base holding firm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are both expected to attend a grand swearing-in ceremony, with April 15 emerging as the likely date.

As Nitish Kumar's belongings are quietly moved to a new government bungalow away from 1, Anney Marg , Bihar is holding its breath. An era is packing its bags. Another is waiting at the door.