At last, the Bharatiya Janata Party got its first 'Samrat' in Bihar

Patna, 15 April (ABN) - Samrat Choudhary has taken oath as the 24th Chief Minister of Bihar, and with this, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has achieved its long-held desire. The BJP had invested in Samrat Choudhary by making him the state president of Bihar in 2023, and after three years, it has reaped the benefits with interest. The 46-year-old party has finally got its first Chief Minister in Bihar after a long struggle.

When Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister for just seven days 26 years ago, Samrat Choudhary was elected as an MLA from the Purbatta assembly constituency on a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket. At that time, his father, Shyam Choudhary, a founding member of Nitish Kumar's old party, Samata Party, was also in the opposition camp. In the 2000 elections, Nitish Kumar's party won only 34 seats, while the BJP won 67 seats. Despite this, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee presented Nitish Kumar as a candidate for the Chief Minister's post, showcasing his broad-minded approach towards alliance parties. Nitish Kumar remained the Chief Minister for only seven days, but the people of Bihar got a new face for the future. Later, in November 2005, Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister again and remained in the post until June 16, 2013, with the support of the BJP.

This was the period when Samrat Choudhary was emerging as a student of politics. After becoming an MLA from the Purbatta assembly seat on an RJD ticket for the first time in 2000, he lost the 2005 election but returned to the assembly by winning the same seat again in 2010. In 2014, he ended his long-standing association with the RJD and joined Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United). At that time, he was given the portfolio of Urban Development and Housing Minister in the cabinet of Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Earlier, in 1999, he was also part of Rabri Devi's cabinet, but that tenure was short-lived.

When Samrat Choudhary joined the Janata Dal (United), Bihar politics was going through an experimental phase. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had projected Narendra Modi as the face of the Prime Minister, against whom Nitish Kumar had already parted ways in 2013. In 2014, Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, and from there, the BJP started searching for a Chief Ministerial face in Bihar. As part of this effort, the party also bet on Sushil Modi, but after Nitish Kumar rejoined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Sushil Modi's stature was reduced to the second position in the Bihar cabinet.

The same BJP, which had strongly supported Nitish Kumar from 2000 to 2013, was now constantly looking for an alternative who could become its face for the Chief Minister's post in Bihar and prepare the ground to oust Nitish Kumar from power. In these circumstances, Samrat Choudhary left the Janata Dal (United) and joined the BJP in 2018. The same year, the party made him the state vice president of Bihar.

Samrat Choudhary was born on November 16, 1968, in the village of Lakhanpur in Tarapur, Munger district. His initial name was Rakesh Choudhary, which he later changed to Samrat Choudhary. His father, Shyam Choudhary, was a prominent face of the Kushwaha community and a influential leader in the state. Shyam Choudhary was first elected as an MLA from the Tarapur assembly seat in 1985. This was the same year when Nitish Kumar also won his first assembly election from Harnaut. Shyam Choudhary went on to become an MLA seven times and an MP once. In 1998, when he became an MP from the Khagaria Lok Sabha seat, his wife and Samrat Choudhary's mother, Parvati Devi, was elected as an MLA from the traditional Tarapur seat.

Samrat Choudhary's political grooming took place under various personalities. After entering politics in 1990, he spent a long time with Lalu Prasad before leaving the RJD in 2014. After his political training with Lalu Prasad, he spent the next four years with Nitish Kumar and then emerged as a strong leader after being tempered in the BJP's political crucible.

After joining the Janata Dal (United) in 2014, he became a member of the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad), and in the next term in 2020, the BJP sent him to the Vidhan Parishad again.

In the 2020 assembly elections, the BJP won 74 seats, while the JD(U) won only 43, yet Nitish Kumar retained the Chief Minister's post. Political analysts said that the BJP lacked aggressive leadership. After this, the party started searching for an aggressive leader, considering the caste equation in Bihar.

Meanwhile, when the JD(U) and BJP were engaged in a tussle over the Chief Minister's post, Nitish Kumar left the NDA again and joined the Mahagathbandhan on August 9, 2022. This was the stage from which the BJP started searching for a permanent Chief Ministerial face. The party made Samrat Choudhary, who was a minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet and the leader of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council since August 2022, the state president on March 23, 2023, replacing Sanjay Jaiswal. On this change, former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi sarcastically remarked, "The BJP is no longer a party of the marginalized."

In fact, with this change, the BJP brought forward Samrat Choudhary, a leader who is the son of Shyam Choudhary, a prominent leader of the Kushwaha community.

Shyam Choudhary was once a proponent of Nitish Kumar's "Luv (Kurmi) and Kush (Koeri)" social alliance against Lalu Prasad's Yadav vote bank. By bringing Samrat Choudhary to the forefront, the BJP not only attempted to create a rift in Nitish Kumar's Koeri-Kurmi social alliance but also tried to weaken the perception that the party represents only the upper castes.

As soon as Samrat Choudhary became the BJP's state president in 2023, he started showing his aggressive stance. He announced, wearing a Moritha (turban) on his head, that the turban would only be removed when Nitish Kumar is ousted from the Chief Minister's post. However, in the very next year, in 2024, the JD(U) and BJP reunited, and Samrat Choudhary was made the Deputy Chief Minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet. Later, while taking a dip in the Saryu River, he removed his turban, saying he had taken a vow to oust the Chief Minister of the Mahagathbandhan.