BJP National President Nitin Nabin To Be Sent To Rajya Sabha From Bihar; Likely To Get Cabinet Berth
Nitin is expected to file his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 5, which is the last day for the purpose.
By Dev Raj
Published : March 3, 2026 at 5:50 PM IST
Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided on Tuesday to send its national president Nitin Nabin to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. It signals that he would shift completely to central politics.
Incidentally, previous BJP national presidents JP Nadda and Amit Shah were also Union cabinet ministers while being at the helm of the party. Nitin is currently an MLA from the Bankipur constituency in Patna. His name figured in the list of nine candidates from Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha and West Bengal, released by BJP general secretary and headquarters in-charge Arun Singh for the forthcoming biennial election to 37 seats of the Upper House of the Parliament.
He had previously resigned from the position of a minister in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cabinet in December 2025 after being appointed as the BJP national executive president. He had the road construction, as well as, urban development and housing departments with him at that time.
Incidentally, Nitin was celebrating Holi with party leaders and workers in Patna at the time of the announcement of his candidature. Bihar BJP president Sanjay Saraogi, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Patna Sahib MP Ravishankar Prasad, Digha MLA Sanjiv Chaurasia and several others were present on the occasion.
After the announcement, the BJP national president went to his official residence in the state capital, where several leaders of the party assembled to congratulate him. He did not talk to the media about his candidature and went to his personal residence in the city.
Nitin is expected to file his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 5, which is the last day for the purpose. Voting would be held on March 16.
"Our party has made him (Nitin) a candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls so that he focuses on serving the country. He will also keep serving the people of Bankipur Assembly constituency because he has a direct relationship with booth-level workers here. This is a moment of enthusiasm and doubles the happiness of the Holi festival for us," Bihar MLC and party’s national media co-head Sanjay Mayukh told ETV Bharat.
A senior BJP leader said the BJP Parliamentary Board will decide on sending Nitin to the Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP has also opted for Shivesh Kumar as the second Rajya Sabha candidate from Bihar. He is the son of former Union minister Munilal Ram, who represented the Sasaram Lok Sabha seat from 1996 to 2004. His selection underscores the saffron party’s efforts to attract the support of the Dalits and uphold its relations with families that have supported it in the past.
Shivesh represented the Agiaon (SC) Assembly constituency in Bhojpur from 2010 to 2015 and later made a mark as a sterling organiser in the party, serving as the state secretary and general secretary. He was also a member of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Committee of the Legislative Assembly.
Upendra Kushwaha to contest Rajya Sabha polls
Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) president and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha will file his nomination papers on Thursday as a candidate supported by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). RLM spokesperson Nitin Bharti said that the decision was taken after discussions with the top leadership of the NDA. Kushwaha had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday.
A candidate needs 41 first-preference votes of the MLAs to win a Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar. The Legislative Assembly has a total of 243 seats, of which the NDA won 202 in the state polls held in November 2025. The alliance needs 205 votes to sweep all five Rajya Sabha seats in the state that are going to poll on March 16. This means that it will have to manage three votes from the Opposition camp that has 41 MLAs altogether.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) will field candidates for the two remaining seats of the Upper House of Parliament. It is yet to declare the candidates.
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