The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary to make a dent into Nitish Kumar's traditional social support base of Kurmi and Koeri/Kushwaha communities.
Key Points
- The BJP's selection of Samrat Choudhary is a strategic move to consolidate the dominant OBC vote bank, specifically targeting the Kurmi and Koeri/Kushwaha communities.
- Choudhary's strong ties with Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, coupled with his aggressive political stance, were key factors in his elevation.
- 'The BJP leadership was looking for a leader who can mix caste and development with its Hindutva agenda.'
On October 30, 2025, at an election meeting during the assembly polls in Bihar, the second-most powerful Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah publicly sought the people's overwhelming support and votes for the party's senior leader Samrat Choudhary, assuring them that 'Modiji Samratji ko bada aadmi banayenge.'
Shah's words proved prophetic on April 14 evening, within an hour after Bihar's longest serving chief minister Nitish Kumar, 75, stepped down, the BJP picked Choudhary, 56, to replace him.
Fulfilling a Promise and Political Strategy
"It was a clear hint to people that Samratji will be made chief minister by Modiji at the right time," says BJP state President Sanjay Saravgi.
Samrat Choudhary, a former state BJP president, is considered a favourite of Amit Shah and is projected as a strong leader.
But the real question is, why did the BJP leadership choose Choudhary, who only joined the sparty in 2017, over other senior party leaders who were reportedly in the race for the top post in Bihar?
Besides, this is contrary to the BJP's trend in recent years in state after state -- in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha -- where the party leadership sprang a surprise in its choice of new face as chief minister over known frontrunners.
Caste Arithmetic and OBC Consolidation
The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in last year's assembly polls, took minute care of the caste arithmetic of the dominant OBCs, particularly non-Yadavs, in its choice of Samrat.
With Nitish Kumar stepping down and moving to Delhi as a Rajya Sabha MP, the future of his party, the Janata Dal-United, is not bright.
Taking this into consideration, BJP will use Samrat to make a dent into Nitish's traditional social support base of Luv-Kush -- the Kurmi and Koeri/Kushwaha communities.
It is an accepted fact that Nitish's strength in state politics for two decades as CM was fully based on the overwhelming support from the Luv-Kush communities.
AQ=s Samrat belongs to the Koeri/Kushwaha community, a political observer in Patna explains to this correspondent his elevation will help the BJP consolidate his caste, who are 4.21% of the state's population, along with Nitish's Kurmi caste, who account for 2.87% of total population.
Together, both account for about 7% of the population and are a factor in more than 40 of Bihar's 243 assembly seats.
"The BJP was looking for a strong OBC leader and found this in Samrat, who is a Koeri, a powerful OBC caste that has substantial presence across the state," says a senior BJP leader.
Shah's Trust and Modi's Approval
Sources in the BJP said Samrat's advantage lies in the fact that he was known as Shah's man and enjoys the home minister's confidence.
Besides, Samrat was also in Modi's good books. Unlike other BJP leaders in the race, Samrat's strength was that he was the choice of Shah and Modi, who matter more than anyone in the party.
In caste-ridden Bihar where the JD-U led by Nitish Kumar and the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal led by Lalu Prasad are widely seen as champions of Mandal politics, the BJP till date has failed to promote a strong non-Yadav OBC leader of its own despite unsuccessfully trying to project Union Minister Nityanand Rai and others in the past.
"The BJP leadership was looking for a leader who can mix caste and development with its Hindutva agenda," another BJP leader says. "Samrat proved it in the last four to five years, and that made him close to Shah and Modi."
Aggressive Stance and Organisational Skills
Samrat is known for his aggressive stance and has an image of a hardliner though he began his political career with the RJD and later shifted to the JD-U.
According to BJP leaders, Samrat successfully completed the task assigned to him by Shah to create a new organisation set-up for the party in Bihar in record time.
When the BJP won a dominant role in last year's election, it bagged the most important home portfolio and put Samrat in charge of the department which overlooks law and order and the police.
This has=d never happened before in the 20 years when Nitish led the government either in alliance with the BJP or RJD; he always keep the home portfolio with himself.
The BJP has wanted to replace Nitish Kumar since the 2020 Bihar assembly election when the JD-U performed poorly. But political compulsions forced the BJP to play second fiddle to Nitish Kumar.
After the NDA returned to power in November 2025 with a thumping majority and the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats, four more than JD-U, it decided to replace Nitish Kumar this time.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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