Nitish gave up CM's post on his own, BJP didn't ask him to do so: Samrat

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary asserted that his predecessor Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president, had given up the post of his own accord and was not elbowed out by the BJP.

Mr. Choudhary, who is the first BJP leader to head a government in the State, also underscored that Mr. Kumar, who was now a Rajya Sabha MP, "remains the NDA's undisputed leader in Bihar".

"Nitish Kumar stepped down of his own accord. We had not asked him to do so. Of course, he did acknowledge the fact that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had let him become the Chief Minister for the first time when BJP had more MLAs than his party and that he now wanted to reciprocate the gesture," Choudhary said at an event organised by a leading media group here on Friday (September 18, 2026).