Samrat Choudhary

Samrat Choudhary (born 16 November 1968), also known by his alias Rakesh Kumar is an Indian politician, who is currently serving as Deputy Chief minister of Bihar under Nitish Kumar along with Vijay Sinha. He is a member of the Bihar Legislative Council from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been the party president of BJP Bihar State unit from March 2023 to 25 July 2024. He has also remained Member of Legislative Assembly and a minister in Government of Bihar in Rashtriya Janata Dal government. Chaudhary has been a former Vice President of BJP for the state of Bihar and currently elected for the second term as MLC in 2020 after his first term ended in 2019. In 2014, Samrat planned a split in Rashtriya Janata Dal by defecting thirteen MLAs as splinter group of the party, later joining the BJP. In 2022, he was selected as the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council. In 2024, he was also made the convener of Group of Ministers on Goods and Service Tax rate rationalisation panel.

Life

Choudhary belongs to Koeri caste and he has been the OBC face of the BJP for a long time.
He was born on 16 November 1968 in Lakhanpur village of Munger. His mother's name is Parvati Devi and father's name is Shakuni Choudhary. His ancestral village is in Lakhanpur in Tarapur block of Munger district. Samrat belongs to a family of politicians. His father, Shakuni Choudhary has been an MLA and MP seven times and mother Parvati Devi has been an MLA from Tarapur constituency. After completing his basic education, he received higher education from Madurai Kamaraj University.

Political career

Chaudhary entered active politics in 1990 and on 19 May 1999 he was sworn in as the Minister of Agriculture in the Bihar government. He contested from Parbatta (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in 2000 and 2010 and was elected MLA. In 2010, he was made the Chief Whip of the opposition party in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. On 2 June 2014, he was sworn in and took charge as Minister of Urban Development and Housing Department in the Government of Bihar. In 2018, he was made the vice president of Bihar Pradesh in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Before joining BJP he has remained associated with Rashtriya Janata Dal as well as Janata Dal (United). In 2020 Bihar Assembly election he was made star campaigner of National Democratic Alliance, meanwhile he was embroiled in a controversy after giving a controversial statement on Lalu Prasad Yadav's caste equation.

In 2021, Samrat was made Panchayati Raj minister in the expanded cabinet of Nitish Kumar from BJP quota. He has also served as Minister for Urban Development and Housing, Health in 2014 in Jitan Ram Manjhi Ministry and Minister of Metrology and Horticulture in 1999 in Rabri Devi Ministry.

Tenure as Panchayati Raj Minister

The tenure of Samrat Choudhary as Panchayati Raj minister was a blend of controversies and developmental steps taken by him under the jurisdictions of his ministry. In March 2021, he gained nationwide attention for getting embroiled in a strong argument with the speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha. The speaker was seeking his reply, on a question that was raised by an MLA, regarding working of his department. Later, he apologized to the speaker for violation of the decorum of the house. The Panchayati Raj Ministry under him took several steps for promoting better organisational structure like recruitment of more staff in sanitation department as well as paving the way for safe disposal of dead carcasses of stray animals. The ministry under him also planned to seek the intra department supports of other ministerial departments.

He has been accused of charges related to undue influence or personation at an election and disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.

State president of Bharatiya Janata Party

In March 2023, Chaudhary was appointed president of Bhartiya Janata Party for the state of Bihar, replacing Sanjay Jaiswal. As per the political analysts, the step was taken by party leadership in order to create strong foundation among the voters of Kushwaha or the koeri caste, which dominated many of the districts of Bihar and were recorded as second largest caste group after the Yadavs in state. After his appointment to the post of state chief of BJP, Rabri Devi commented, "it seems BJP has turned its back from the Banias and that's why they have raised a Mahto to the post of president."

Chaudhary led BJP in Bihar after his appointment as party's state chief. Reportedly, he attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar verbally on various occasions; in May 2023, while he was trying to meet a former five time MLA of BJP Jawahar Prasad, who was incarcerated in prison for his role in Ram Navmi violence in Sasaram, he was stopped by authorities. On 3 May 2023, in a statement given to press, Chaudhary accused Nitish Kumar of promoting criminals and targeting saints; he cited the incident of release of former Member of Parliament and convicted criminal Anand Mohan Singh to support his claim. In 2023, while speaking to a gathering of BJP political workers in Begusarai, union minister Giriraj Singh projected Chaudhary as the chief ministerial candidate of BJP for 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. In July 2023, Chaudhary, along with Vijay Kumar Sinha and other BJP leaders organised a protest on the question of ten lakh jobs, that was promised by Grand Alliance government of Nitish Kumar and Tejaswi Yadav, to win the election. The protest was led by Chaudhary and Sinha along with BJP workers. However, when the mob reached Dak Bangla Square, Patna Police initiated lathi charge on BJP workers. A worker of BJP from Jahanabad died due to severe injuries, while many other leaders like Janardan Singh Sigriwal were also beaten. In the aftermath of protest, Chaudhary, in his statement, blamed the incumbent government of Nitish Kumar for the death of their worker.

The BJP leaders were also protesting against the teacher recruitment policy of Nitish Kumar government, and the domicile issue. The government had allowed the candidate outside the state of Bihar to take the recruitment examination, hence, there was dissatisfaction in one section of local candidates from state. However, Chaudhary, along with all major state leaders of BJP were arrested during the protest.

Chaudhary is also known for his outspoken nature. In May 2023, he alleged that Janata Dal United (JDU) president Lalan Singh has served liquor at a feast organised in his Lok Sabha constituency Munger, despite knowing that government of Bihar had imposed ban on liquor since 2016. For his remark, he was criticised by JDU leaders. The state president of JDU, Umesh Singh Kushwaha even passed a censure resolution against him, at a meeting of party. Kushwaha also commented that despite belonging to a political family, Chaudhary lacks decency required by a politician. At various occasions, Chaudhary had also criticised Nitish Kumar for not promoting any Kushwaha or Kurmi leader, other than himself. He also alleged Kumar of using his peers for his own benefits.

In March 2023, soon after Chaudhary became the head of state wing of BJP, posters were raised by a group of BJP political workers in Patna, equating Chaudhary to Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The senior BJP leaders like former deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad evaded direct comment on this comparison, when approached by media. On the other hand, JDU alleged BJP was avoiding latter's long time faithful party leaders and promoting someone, who was an outsider to party, sometimes before.

Chaudhary continued to encircle Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav, both inside and outside of Bihar Legislative Assembly, in his new role as BJP state chief. He became vocal in asking for resignation of Tejaswi Yadav, after chargesheet was filed against Yadav in connection with 'Land For Job' scheme, a scheme in which appropriation of land from people was done, in lieu of giving them job, in the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav. Chaudhary was also engaged in 'politics of symbolism' ; he wore a turban on his head with the resolve to remove it on the day, Nitish Kumar leaves the premiership of the state of Bihar.

In July 2024, he removed the turban after visiting Ayodhya and taking a dip in the Sarayu river. Chaudhary dedicated his turban lord Rama and announced that after Nitish Kumar joined BJP led coalition once against ditching the alliance led by Rashtriya Janata Dal, his vow to made him resign from the office of Chief Minister got completed.

On 26 July 2024, Chaudhary was removed from the post of party's state president for Bihar. It was done after the extensive discussion within the party leadership after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, in which, it was concluded that he was unable to transfer the vote of Kushwaha caste to the Bharatiya Janata Party. With his removal, Dilip Kumar Jaiswal, party's member of legislative council of Bihar was appointed the new president of Bihar unit of BJP. Chaudhary, however, continued to serve as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

Leader of BJP legislative party in Bihar

In January 2024, Chaudhary was made the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party's legislative party in Bihar. Vijay Kumar Sinha was subsequently made the deputy leader of BJP legislative party. This followed swearing in of Sinha and Chaudhary as Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar in the Nitish Kumar's 9th government formed in the state in 2024. Several political analysts claimed that BJP could project Chaudhary as its Chief Minister face for the 2025 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. It was stipulated that any political consideration in the caste sensitive state like Bihar can only be made by keeping caste in centre stage. Following the caste based census conducted by Nitish Kumar in 2022, it was revealed that OBC and Extremely Backward Class comprised 60% of the population of the state and this revelation necessitated OBC centric politics in the state. Chaudhary was hence considered as a natural choice for the top leadership position of Bharatiya Janata Party, as he hailed from the caste which was part of troika of three agrarian castes, Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri, which historically led the anti-upper caste agitation in the state of Bihar. Following the displacement of upper caste from power circle, Yadav and Kurmis were able to run the state with Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar assuming the premiership, but, Kushwahas or Koeris left behind. Hence, it was assumed that Chaudhary being a Kushwaha was BJP's reply to Nitish Kumar's dominance in Bihar's politics.

Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar

Soon after taking oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar alongside Vijay Kumar Sinha, Chaudhary was allocated several other departments in portfolio distribution of Nitish Kumar in February 2024. He was allocated important departments of finance, health, commercial taxes, urban development and housing department, Sports, Panchayati Raj, Industry, Animal and Fisheries resources as well as planning.

On 13 February 2024, Chaudhary as Deputy CM as well as Finance Minister of Bihar, presented a budget worth ₹2.79 lakh crore in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. This was one of the biggest budget in the history of Bihar. Chaudhary also announced that the growth rate of state has achieved 10.64% mark and a total of 2.5 crore people in the state have risen above poverty level in preceding years. As finance minister, he worked for creation of more jobs in the government sector as per NDA's poll promises. Chaudhary announced creation of 30,547 posts in various government departments after the administrative committee of finance ministry sanctioned the creation of these posts under him.

Ideology

Chaudhary holds the anti-immigrant ideology, which is promoted by BJP in frontier states of India. In June 2023, while addressing a rally at Purnia, Chaudhary promised to the audience that if the government of BJP is formed in the state of Bihar, they will drive all illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from the Muslim dominated region of Bihar called Simanchal. Chaudhary also believes in existence of the right wing conspiracy theory of Love Jihad, the process of Muslim men trapping Hindu girls, and converting them into Islam for marriage. In one of his media briefing, Chaudhary said that all the Love Jihad cases pending in Bihar will be probed, if BJP wins 2025 Bihar assembly elections.

Chaudhary had supported the drive of Bihar government for conducting a caste census in the state and at an all India level. Amidst claims that Bharatiya Janata Party and its leaders are against caste census, Chaudhary declared in BJP's Other Backward Class convention at Khagaria in 2021 that he and his party is not against caste census and the BJP has always given representation to numerically small caste groups, which are vulnerable to be subsumed by the dominant castes. He also pointed towards the appointment of Renu Devi and Tarkishore Prasad as Deputy CM by BJP to support his arguments as both belonged to Backward Caste. On 2 October 2023, after the Government of Bihar published the data of caste census, Chaudhary reiterated his statement and clarified that the release of data won't change the political standing and policies of the party as they have always worked towards proportional representation for all the castes.

Controversies

In June 2023, taking a dig at Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Chaudhary compared latter's bearded look to Osama bin Laden. He said, "Rahul Gandhi grows beard like Osama bin Laden and thinks that he would become like prime minister Narendra Modi".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhary, Samrat
Living people
1968 births
Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians
Janata Dal (United) politicians
Hindustani Awam Morcha politicians
Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar
Members of the Bihar Legislative Council
Leaders of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council
People from Munger district
Bihar MLAs 2000–2005
Bihar MLAs 2010–2015
Madurai Kamaraj University alumni
People from Khagaria district
State cabinet ministers of Bihar
Deputy chief ministers of Bihar
20th-century Indian politicians
Finance ministers of Bihar
Agriculture ministers of Bihar