PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will chair his last cabinet meeting on Wednesday (April 8) before leaving for New Delhi to take oath as a Rajya Sabha member on April 10.
He will reach the national capital on April 9, where he will chair a meeting with senior JD(U) leaders.
JD(U) insiders said that the meeting will likely be to discuss key issues with senior party leaders before formally moving to the Rajya Sabha.
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh are among the top leaders of the party to attend the meeting.
A senior JD(U) leader said that the meeting would also be to discuss issues related to the formation of a new government in Bihar and about the role of Nitish’s son, Nishant Kumar, who joined the party on March 8.
The proposed meeting is also expected to discuss the leader to be selected as Nitish’s successor. State BJP leaders have emphatically said that the next CM will be decided after consultation with Nitish.
However, strong talks are doing the rounds that the new CM will be from the BJP.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at Nitish’s residence in New Delhi. The meeting is being held amid reports of Nitish’s resignation from the CM’s post, likely on April 12.
The longest serving chief minister of Bihar is expected to return to Patna on April 11 and submit his resignation to the Governor the next day.
Sources said that Nitish will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital to discuss the name of his successor, who will be from the BJP.
This will be the first occasion when the BJP will have its chief minister in Bihar, even though the party has been in power for the last two decades.
Deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary, a Kushwaha by caste, is the frontrunner among probable candidates for the chief minister.
Other names doing the rounds are Union Minister Nityanand Rai, BJP MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia and State Industries Minister Dilip Kumar Jaiswal.
Samrat Choudhary, MLA from Tarapur in Munger, is considered close to both Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar.
Moreover, his chances seem bright as he belongs to the Kushwaha community, which comes under the Other Backwards Community (OBC).
Kushwahas (or Koeris) and Kurmi (the caste Nitish belongs to) are the second largest group in the OBC category after Yadavs in the State.
“If Nitish Kumar has some say in the selection of his successor, he will suggest Samrat Choudhary’s name,” a senior JD(U) leader said.