While it is not confirmed who will become the next Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar remains the face of the NDA alliance in the state and most likely candidate to assume the top post. However, a key issue that is being discussed in the political circles is the number of deputy chief ministers that the new government is likely to have once NDA comes to power.
According to an analysis by Dhainik Bhaskar, the BJP is already close to forming the government on its own. BJP was leading in 92 seats while JDU was ahead in 85 and LJP (Ramvilas) in 19, as per ECI trends. Even without JDU, the NDA was leading in 117 seats, five short of the majority mark of 122 Experts believe that BJP can comfortably mobilise this number if they need to, giving them enough leverage in the new government if Nitish becomes CM, reports Dhainik Bhaskar.
Another key factor is that BJP is still dependent on JDU at the Centre despite their new-found bargaining power in the state.
BJP's Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha were already deputy chief ministers in the previous Nitish cabinet while Nand Kishor Yadav, also from BJP, was the Speaker. But given BJP's stellar performance in the recent assembly elections, the saffron party is unlikely to settle for two deputy CMs and a Speaker even if they agree on Nitish as their chief ministerial face.
Reports suggest that the BJP might also seek top Cabinet berths, more than what JDU will get. The key home affairs portfolio was held by Nitish himself in the previous cabinet while finance ministry was handled by Samrat Choudhary. This equation is likely to change after the swearing-in
The other scenario is the BJP, being the new big brother in Bihar, could claim the CM post for itself by exchanging the two deputy CM posts with JDU. But Nitish may not settle for a deputy CM post and instead will look for a berth at the Centre, according to reports.
Another challenge for the new government is to accommodate Chirag Paswan's LJP (Ramvilas), which too has performed well in the elections with a lead in 19 of 28 seats. It is likely that LJP(R) will get a deputy CM post though Paswan is likely to stay at the Centre as Union minister. Before the election results, Paswan said that he would designate one of the LJP(R) MLAs as deputy CM if the NDA and his party do well in the polls. After the results came in, Paswan told media on Friday that he firmly believes that Nitish would continue as Bihar chief minister in the new government.
