Nitish Kumar or Tejashwi Yadav: Who will be the next chief minister of Bihar?

With Nitish Kumar dumping the NDA and rejoining hands with the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, hectic parleys have begun in Patna amid speculations on who will be the next chief minister of Bihar -- Kumar or Tejashwi Yadav? 

According to sources, the 71-year-old JD(U) chief is set to be retained as the chief minister while the RJD president will be his deputy. 

The Speaker will be from the RJD while the assignment of all ministries will be Nitish Kumar's prerogative. 

The Congress is likely to get a ministerial berth after a formula was evolved during the discussions while the Left parties may extend their support from the outside.

Earlier, in the day, the Congress and Left parties handed over the lists of their legislators to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Mandan Mohan Jha, the state president of Congress said: "We will support Nitish Kumar if he leaves the BJP and forms a new government with the help of Mahagathbandhan. We have also given the list of all 19 MLAs of our party to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav."

Mahboob Alam, the MLA of CPI (ML) said: "We have also given the list to Tejashwi Yadav. We will uproot the BJP from power. We are giving support to Nitish Kumar for the formation of a new government.
 
Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM has also extended its unconditional support to Kumar and Mahagathbandhan. 

As far as the numbers are concerned, the JD(U) has 45 MLAs and it also has the support of an independent candidate Sumit Singh. LJP MLA Raj Kumar Singh also merged with the JD(U). Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) has already decided to stay with Nitish Kumar. The HAM has 4 MLAs. And, the final count of MLAs with Nitish Kumar is 51.

On the Mahagathbandhan front, the RJD had 80 MLAs but as MLA Anant Singh lost his legislation after the MLA-MLC court of Patna convicted him for 10 years jail term in AK 47, hand grenade and bullet proof jacket case, RJD was reduced to 79. Still, it is the single largest party in Bihar Assembly.

Besides the RJD, Congress has 19 MLAs, CPI (ML) has 12 MLAs, CPI has 2 and CPI(M) also has 2 seats. Hence, Nitish Kumar will have the support of 165 MLAs.

The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats and requires 122 for any alliance or party to prove the majority and form the government. The `165` number will make Nitish Kumar more comfortable to run the government. He would be aiming to give participation to every party in his cabinet to run the government smoothly.

On the other hand, when Nitish Kumar was running the government under the umbrella of NDA, he was having the support of 77 MLAs of BJP apart from 4 MLAs of HAM, 46 MLAs of his own party JD(U) and one independent MLA Sumit Singh.

Nitish Kumar could also feel comfortable with Mahagathbandhan due to his socialist image. Kumar is a leader who emerged from the JP movement and worked under Karpoori Thakur. When he went with the BJP, his socialist image was a bit dented. Now that he is set to join Mahagathbandhan, course correction will be one of the focus for the future, sources said.