The Rise Of Samrat Choudhary - Being Dropped From Cabinet To Bihar's Next Chief Minister

Patna: Samrat Choudhary, BJP's legislature party leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister in the outgoing Nitish Kumar cabinet has been elected as the party's legislature leader again. He will be sworn in as the next chief minister of Bihar soon.

Samrat Choudhary, 57, belongs to the Koeri, or Kushwaha caste, a prominent other backward class (OBC) community in the state. The Kushwaha community is the largest after the Yadavs in the eastern state.

Choudhary was born on November 16, 1968, in Lakhanpur village of Munger district in Bihar. His father Shakuni Choudhary was a seven-time MLA and Member of Parliament. His mother, Parvati Devi, also served as an MLA from Tarapur.

He completed his early education in Munger and later pursued higher studies at Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu. He began his political journey in the 1990s by aligning with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

On May 19, 1999, he became Agriculture Minister in the Rabri Devi government, a move that sparked debate due to his relatively young age. In 2000, he was elected as an MLA for the first time from the Parbatta constituency in Khagaria district. In 2010, Choudhary was elected MLA for the second time and was appointed Chief Whip of the opposition in the Assembly.

In 2014, he led a split in the RJD and joined the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led government as Minister for Urban Development and Housing, a break from Lalu Prasad Yadav's camp. He formally joined the BJP in 2017 and was made the party's vice president in 2018.

In 2020, he was elected to the Legislative Council from the BJP's quota. In 2022, he became Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council.

When Nitish Kumar formed a government with the Mahagathbandhan in August 2022, the BJP needed a strong and aggressive leader. So Union Home Minister Amit Shah appointed Samrat Choudhary as the state BJP president. Choudhary took a vow that he would not remove his turban until Nitish Kumar was removed from the Chief Minister's post

He fulfilled this symbolic vow in July 2024 after a dip in the Saryu river in Ayodhya, believing he had moved closer to his goal. In January 2024, he became Deputy Chief Minister for the first time and also the leader of the BJP legislature party.

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