3 min readNew DelhiApr 8, 2026 07:05 PM IST
Nitish Kumar will take oath as a Rajya Sabha member on April 10 and he is likely to resign as the Bihar Chief Minister on April 14, a day after the inauspicious month of Kharmas ends on April 13, it is learnt.
“He is anyway taking oath as RS member on April 10. After that only three days are left for Kharmas to end. So, it is better to let the inauspicious month go by and then resign. It is a matter of three days. Also, there is no legal requirement for him to resign before taking oath as RS member. He has already resigned as an MLC, which is good enough,” a JDU leader said.
In the past Giridhar Gamang has held both posts. He was both the CM of Odisha (February-December 1999) and a member of the Lok Sabha at the same time. While holding the two posts, he famously cast the decisive vote against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in April 1999 during a no-confidence motion. The government lost by 270 to 269 votes, leading to a fresh general election.
On Wednesday, talking to reporters in Patna, JDU leader and Nitish confidant Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said, “After having been elected to the Rajya Sabha, the chief minister is now scheduled to take oath as a member of the Upper House in Parliament. He will leave (for Delhi) tomorrow and will be sworn in the day after.”
To a question on his resignation and swearing in of the new CM, Chaudhary said, “That will happen in due course. Upon returning from Delhi, the chief minister will resign, and the modalities will be discussed by all NDA partners thereafter.”
Sources said the decision of who would be the new CM of Bihar is lying with the BJP leadership in Delhi. The JDU is, however, learnt to be in favour of BJP leader and deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary. Along with the new CM taking over, Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant is also likely to be appointed as the new deputy CM of Bihar. Sources said he is also likely to get some key portfolios.
Nitish Kumar, as the party president, however, will continue to oversee affairs in the state politics and guide the party’s political engagements and activities, sources said.
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On April 6, Rajya Sabha chairman C P Radhakrishnan administered oath to 19 newly elected members of different political parties. The new members were: Ramdas Bandu Athawale, Maya Chintaman Ivnate, Sharadchandra Pawar, Ramrao Sakharam Wadkute, Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare, Christopher Manickam, Anbumani Ramadoss, Constandine Ravindran, L K Sudhish, M Thambidurai, Tiruchi Siva, Babul Supriya Baral, Menaka Guruswamy, Rajeev Kumar, Rukmini Mallik, Biswajit Sinha, Santrupt Mishra, Dilip Kumar Ray and Manmohan Samal.
