Man Who Vowed To 'Dethrone' Nitish Kumar Named New Bihar Chief Minister

Never was the phrase 'big shoes to fill' more apt than now with the Bharatiya Janata Party's Samrat Choudhary being picked to replace Janata Dal United boss Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister of Bihar.

A larger-than-life figure, Nitish Kumar has dominated Bihar politics for 50+ years. He started as a novice with the Janata Party in 1974. By the time he quit as Chief Minister - in April 2026 - the 75-year-old had written himself into the history books - a 'sushasan babu' ('good governance' man) with unrivalled powers of persuasion.

In many ways he is still Mr Bihar, a record 10-time Chief Minister and an inextricable part of the state's political and socio-cultural landscape. And therein lies the rub, for Samrat Choudhary, the BJP, and all those who will follow him in that post.

So who is Samrat Choudhary?

Born in November 1968, in Munger district, Choudhary has significant political pedigree.

His father, Shakuni, was a six-time MLA from the Tarapur constituency, while his mother, Parvati, won the same seat in 1998 for the now-defunct Samta Party. Samrat Choudhary returned to reclaim the family bastion in the 2025 election.

Father, mother, and son have won that seat in nine of the last 12 elections.

Now 57, Samrat Choudhary made his political debut in 1990.

In 1999 - when Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife, Rabri Devi, led the government and the BJP was an ally - he became the Agriculture Minister. In the 2000 and 2010 elections he won the Parbatta Assembly seat. And, in 2010 - when the BJP was in the opposition - he became the Chief Whip.

Samrat Choudhary taking oath as Nitish's deputy in November 2025 (File).

Originally associated with Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nitish Kumar's JDU, he tried engineering a split in 2014, pulling over a dozen MLAs with him before joining the BJP.

That moment could be viewed with unease by the BJP's powers-that-be, but the decade+ he has since spent fighting, vociferously, for the saffron party should lay those doubts at ease.

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Choudhary also served as the BJP's Bihar unit chief from March 2023 to July 2024, and variously as the state's Sports, Finance, Panchayat Raj, and Urban Development & Housing minister.

He brings, therefore, extensive political and administrative experience to what will be a demanding role, not just because he will follow Nitish Kumar but because the state's economy, infrastructure, and public image are in significant need of overhaul.

Why Samrat Choudhary?

Over the past decade, the BJP has emerged as a master of the caste/class calculus, deftly juggling candidates and chief minister picks from various communities to select, more often than not, the winning formula.

Back in 2023, after the party won the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh elections, the senior leadership took its time to name the new chief ministers. And when the names dropped, those calculations were evident.

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For example, in Madhya Pradesh, it walked a tight rope to craft a leadership structure to keep multiple communities and vote bases - the Yadavs, the Brahmins, and the Dalits - happy. Similarly, in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where tribal communities and Brahmins are big chunks of the population, the party named a leader from those communities as its chief minister.

Experts see Samrat Choudhary's pick as being a similarly calculated move.

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He comes from the politically influential Kushwaha that accounts for 4.3 per cent of the state's population, according to the caste survey the Nitish Kumar government conducted in 2023.

Traditionally an agrarian community, the Kushwahas are the single-largest OBC (Other Backward Class) group in Bihar after the Yadav community - from which RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son, Tejashwi Yadav hail.

Keeping them on its side is crucial for the BJP as it looks to establish itself in the post-Nitish Kumar era, particularly since the party does not really have a leadership option from the Kurmi community, from which the outgoing Chief Minister hails.

The RJD's Yadav + Muslim vote bank was routed in the 2025 election but it remains a threat, particularly as voters re-assess loyalties as the JDU boss bows out of state politics.

The turban promise

Back in 2023 Samrat Choudhary made a promise. It involved a turban.

He started wearing a turban after Nitish Kumar - ever the political opportunist - jumped ship to the RJD-led opposition alliance the year before. Choudhary vowed then he would rmeove his turban only after 'dethroning' Nitish.

A year later, he unwrapped that turban in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya and offered it to Lord Ram.

प्रभु श्रीराम के पावन चरणों में अपने मुरेठे को समर्पित किया।#Ayodhya_dham_mein_Samrat pic.twitter.com/0e6kyyaC97

— Samrat Choudhary (@samrat4bjp) July 3, 2024

"I pledged to wear the turban till I made Nitish Kumar resign as Chief Minister.. but now he has switched back to the NDA (the BJP-led alliance)... it is time for me to dedicate this turban to the feet of Lord Ram."

The BJP's first

Whatever the reason might be, this will be a big chapter in the BJP's history.

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The saffron party - which has dominated the political and electoral landscape of the country since Narendra Modi was elected to power at the centre in 2014 - has never had a Bihar Chief Minister in its ranks. Now, though, it has broken that duck.

What this means for the JDU

Nitish Kumar's giant stature within the Janata Dal was undoubtedly critical in driving it to electoral wins that it probably should not have recorded, including the last one.

Nitish Kumar will now shift his focus to the Rajya Sabha (File).

But it also means that with his departure there is no real leadership option to keep the BJP at bay and retain the chief minister's post within the party.

Samrat Choudhary's elevation suggests the BJP has, for now at least, seized control of the Bihar government and the state's political narrative from its ally. The real challenge, though, is what comes after.

The next Bihar election is in 2030. That gives Choudhary and the BJP time to establish itself as the party to beat - as Nitish Kumar's JDU was for decades - in the state. Against Bihar's ever-changing political narrative, becoming the chief minister and remaning the chief minister are two very different things, as Samrat Choudhary will know from experience.