In a unique style Union Minister and vocal BJP leader Giriraj Singh sprang a surprise on May 2 when he said Bihar needs a Chief Minister like Yogi Adityanath and made a strong case for Samrat Choudhary for the prized post.
“We need a CM like Yogi Adityanath who believes that if the loudspeakers are removed from the temples, they are removed from the mosques as well,” Giriraj Singh went on to add, “When Samrat Choudhary became the State President of BJP, the supporters raised slogans of ‘Bihar Ka CM Kaisa Ho, Samrat Chaudhary Jaisa Ho’.I want to ask the people of Begusarai to say the same for him”.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh represents the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat.
Samrat Choudhary visited Begusarai for the first time after being named as Bihar BJP Chief. There were applause and sloganeering on the occasion – “Bihar Ka CM Kaisa Ho, Samrat Chaudhary Jaisa Ho”.
Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh also asserted, “We want to make Narendra Modi the PM again in 2024 and we have to remove Nitish Kumar in 2025 and make Samrat Choudhary the next Chief Minister of Bihar”.
The next Assembly elections in Bihar is due by October-November 2025. In the last polls in 2020, BJP and Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) were allies.
Samrat Choudhary is from Koeri or Kushwaha caste and has been the OBC face of the BJP.
Kushwahas are also an important caste group in Bihar’s electoral politics and are considered as the second-largest caste group after the Yadavs in the State. Kushwahas form a significant 6 per cent vote base in Bihar.
In a major setback to Nitish Kumar, former Union Minister and another Kushwaha caste leader Upendra Kushwaha recently quit Nitish Kumar-led JD(U).
In 2014 Samrat Choudhary planned a split in Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by defecting thirteen MLAs as a splinter group of the party. He later joined BJP. In 2022, he was selected as the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council.
Samrat Choudhary, alias Rakesh Kumar was appointed as president of the BJP Bihar unit from March 2023. Samrat Choudhary has been a former Vice President of BJP for the State of Bihar and is currently elected for the second term as MLC in 2020.
Samrat Choudhary’s father, Shakuni Choudhary, was also an eminent politician and an associate of George Fernandes and was a founding member of the Samata Party. Shakuni Choudhary represented the one-time prestigious Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency as a member of the Samata Party — the predecessor of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).
In 2021, Samrat Choudhary was made Panchayati Raj Minister in the expanded cabinet of Nitish Kumar from BJP. He also served as Minister for Urban Development and Housing, Health in 2014 in the Jitan Ram Manjhi Ministry and Minister of Metrology and Horticulture in 1999 in Rabri Devi Ministry.
While Yadavs are the dominating caste group in Bihar politics. There are other vital communities/caste groups too.
Traditionally BJP has been the preferred choice of the Bhumihars, Rajputs and Brahmins too.
The BJP and its allies have made the ‘rule of law’ a major election issue both for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the battle for State assembly in 2025 with the refrain that the people of the State desperately want a crime-free Bihar for all-round development of the State.
There are 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar. In the 2019 general elections, the saffron had won 17, while in 2014, it had won 22.
In 2020 assembly polls, the NDA had secured a total of 125 seats (37.26 per cent votes). The BJP won 74 seats and was the biggest gainer in terms of the number of MLAs elected, and it could add more than 30 per cent to its seat count compared to the 2015 results. The Janata Dal (United) had won in 43.
