Meet Samrat Choudhary, OBC leader whose stock rose rapidly upon joining BJP

An OBC leader of the BJP in Bihar where the party wants to transcend its "pro-upper caste" image, Samrat Choudhary has had a meteoric rise since he joined the outfit nearly seven years ago.

Choudhary was elected the leader of the BJP legislature party on Sunday, and with this elevation, he is likely to become one of the two deputy CMs in the new NDA government, led by Nitish Kumar.

His father, Shakuni Choudhary was an army man-turned-politician who started off in the Congress, and frequently switched allegiance between arch-rivals Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.

Samrat was a minister in the government headed by Rabri Devi, the RJD supremo's wife, and remained with the party for quite a while after it was ousted from power in 2005.

In 2014, he became part of a rebel faction and joined the JD(U) government headed by Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had taken over after Kumar had stepped down.

Three years later, he grew disenchanted with the JD(U) and joined the BJP, which recognised his potential, both as a fiery speaker and as a leader belonging to the prominent Koeri caste.

Choudhary was made a vice-president of the state unit and was later rewarded with a berth in the legislative council. He became a minister in Kumar's government after the NDA won the 2020 assembly polls.

Choudhary was named the state BJP president in March last year, when he succeeded Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Jaiswal, drawing Rabri Devi's snide remark "baniya se dil bhar gaya to Mahto ko bana diya".

Known to be a vocal critic of Nitish Kumar, Choudhary had started wearing a turban after the JD(U) supremo dumped the BJP last year, vowing to take it off only after his party returns to power.

He now faces the challenging task of making peace with his former bete noire and ensuring that the 'Luv Kush' combine, a colloquialism for Kurmis (Kumar's caste) and Koeris in Bihar, remains strong and boosts the BJP-led coalition's prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and beyond.

JD(U) president Kumar resigned as the chief minister of Bihar, saying "things were not working well" for him in the Mahagathbandhan and the opposition bloc INDIA, and staked claim to form a new government with the BJP, which he had dumped less than 18 months ago.

Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, who was elected the deputy of the BJP legislature party, are likely to be Kumar's deputy in the new government.