PATNA, March 6 -- Months after a massive mandate for Nitish Kumar and the NDA-coalition in the assembly polls, Bihar is now headed for another political twist. The 10-time chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls on Thursday, opening doors for a political realignment with the CM's chair up for grabs and many top ministerial positions likely to be reshuffled. The BJP, now the single largest party in the Assembly with 89 MLAs, is expected to get the CM's post, using it to deepen its long-term project of expanding among OBC and EBC blocs where its gains have lagged behind compared to that in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP would not like to repeat its 26-year-old mistake in any circumstances. Back then in the 2000 assembly elections, the BJP got 67 seats and Nitish Kumar's Samata Party got 34 seats. The BJP, under the late AB Vajpayee's leadership, chose Nitish Kumar as their leader and Kumar became CM for the first time. However, during the floor test in the assembly, Lalu Prasad defeated Nitish. The government could last just seven days, but Nitish remained the leader of the NDA and the BJP continued to be his follower. Now in 2026, when BJP is the largest party in Bihar Assembly, it wants to make its own CM in any circumstances. A senior party leader candidly admitted that the BJP no longer wanted to create another Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Though Kumar is likely to continue as chief minister till April 10 at least, speculations about the names of probable first CM candidate from the saffron party has started doing the rounds. "It would be premature to back any leader. Such decisions are taken by party's central unit. And given the nature of selections in different states, you don't know that the Bihar BJP may also be in surprise," said a BJP state office-bearer. Several names are doing the rounds in Bihar's post-Nitish power balance -- deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, Union minister of home Nityanand Rai, Bihar industries minister Dilip Jaiswal, deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha or a woman MLA or even a wildcard entry, as it happened in some states. "There are multiple factors that go into selection of a CM candidate. No one factor can make anyone eligible. The decision will be taken at the highest level, as Bihar remains a high-stake state and the legacy of Nitish Kumar has to be continued. BJP has had a tradition of going out of box in such situations to prove the pundits wrong," said a senior party leader. A Koeri-Kushwaha OBC leader from Munger, is currently Bihar's Deputy CM and home minister and heads the BJP legislature party. He began his career with the RJD, became agriculture minister in the Rabri Devi government in 1999, and later joined JD(U) before finally crossing over to the BJP, where he rose as state vice-president, MLC and then state president. In 2014, he engineered a split in the RJD legislature party, underlining his reputation as an organisational tactician. As the BJP's most prominent OBC face in Bihar, he is seen as the front-runner for CM, symbolising the party's push to consolidate non-Yadav OBCs behind it. BJP aims to strengthen Love-Kush vote with Samrat Chaudhary. The combined population of Koeri and Kurmi in the state is approximately 7% - Koiri at 4.21% and Kurmi at 2.87%. Nitish Kumar has long relied on their support for his political strategy. In this scenario, if the BJP promotes Samrat, this crucial vote bank could shift in their favour. The BJP is actively trying to woo non-Yadav OBCs in Bihar, and Samrat Chaudhary fits perfectly into this strategy. The Koeri community is considered a politically strong backward caste, especially when compared to Yadavs. A Yadav from Vaishali district, is minister of state for home affairs in the Union government, one of the BJP's most senior Bihar leaders is considered close to union home minister Amit Shah. He came into politics through the ABVP in the early 1980s and has long been associated with the Sangh Parivar. A MLA from Hajipur in the Bihar Assembly from 2000 to 2010, he first won the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha seat for the BJP in 2014, 2019 and 2024. The party has projected him as a Yadav face to erode RJD's monopoly over that bloc; his elevation as chief minister would signal an aggressive bid to prise away sections of the Yadav vote while retaining upper caste and non-Yadav OBC support. A Vaishya-Bania community leader from Khagaria's Usri village, is Bihar's industries and road construction minister and a three-time MLC from the Purnea-Araria-Kishanganj graduates constituency. A long-time BJP treasurer and now two-term state party president, he has also handled the revenue and land reforms portfolio and heads Mata Gujri Memorial Medical College in Kishanganj, anchoring the party's traditional Bania-trader vote bank. Credited with steering the organisation through the 2025 assembly elections in which the BJP emerged as the single largest party, Jaiswal is central to the NDA's claim that its industrial push is backed by a consolidating core business community. Sinha has also emerged as another strong contender. A senior BJP leader and former Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, Sinha, currently serves as the deputy chief minister of Bihar. Known for his legislative experience and organisational role within the party, he is considered an important face of the BJP in the state. The BJP is known for springing surprises with chief minister faces in every state. So when BJP makes its CM in Bihar for the first time, it may surprise here too. It could also bet on an EBC face or a Yadav face. However, no state-level leaders are willing to comment on this....