Senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary, who had worn a saffron turban for nearly two years as a symbol of his resolve to unseat then-rival Nitish Kumar, was on Tuesday unanimously elected leader of the NDA legislature party and is set to become the chief minister of Bihar.
Ironically, Choudhary's name was proposed at the NDA meeting by outgoing chief minister Nitish, who submitted his resignation earlier in the day to the governor, days after taking oath as a Rajya Sabha member.
The development cleared the way for the BJP to realise its long-held ambition of installing its own chief minister in the Mandal-heartland state, after playing second fiddle to Nitish's JDU for over two decades.
The development also marked the end of Nitish’s tenure as Bihar’s longest-serving chief minister (2005-2026, barring a brief interlude), a period marked by his repeated political flip-flops to hold on to the chair.
Choudhary, 57, is set to be sworn in on Wednesday at a low-key event at Lok Bhavan. He was earlier elected leader of the BJP legislature party before being endorsed by the NDA. He was one of the two deputy chief ministers in the Nitish government and also held the important home portfolio.
His rise underscores a familiar trend within the BJP, where leaders who have switched parties have risen to prominence, often ahead of long-time ideological loyalists. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress leader, is among the most prominent examples.
The son of former minister Shakuni Choudhary, who had associations across parties, Samrat Choudhary began his political career with the RJD in 1990. He was inducted as a minister in the Rabri Devi government in 1999, even before being elected to either House of the state legislature, but resigned soon after a controversy erupted over his age. He was then known as “Lalu’s sipahi (Lalu’s constable)”.
Choudhary was found to be less than 25, the minimum age for getting elected as an MLA, according to a certificate submitted in a local court relating to a murder case in which he faced charges.
In 2014, coinciding with Narendra Modi’s rise to power at the Centre, Choudhary defected to the JDU, taking with him more than a dozen RJD MLAs. He was later rewarded with a ministerial berth in the Jitan Ram Manjhi government.
Choudhary crossed over to the BJP in 2017, seeing greater political opportunity as an OBC Kushwaha leader at a time when the party was seeking to expand its social base in Bihar. His rise within the party was swift, culminating in his appointment as Bihar BJP president in 2023.
As the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council in 2022, Choudhary began wearing a saffron turban, vowing not to remove it until Nitish was ousted from power after the chief minister severed ties with the BJP and aligned with the RJD.
Choudhary continued to wear the turban for nearly 22 months and removed it months after Nitish returned to the NDA fold in January 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. In July 2024, he unwrapped and offered the turban to Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
Over the years, Choudhary earned the confidence of Union home minister Amit Shah. He won from the Tarapur seat in the 2025 Assembly elections, and Shah, while campaigning for him, had promised to make him a “bada aadmi (big man)”.
Leaders from the BJP and the JDU, however, maintained that Choudhary was Nitish’s “choice” as chief minister. Union textile minister and senior BJP leader from Bihar Giriraj Singh said Nitish had given his approval to the appointment. “I thank Nitishji, who has decided to go to Delhi. Nitishji has given his blessings to Samratji, and the BJP legislature party has also elected him as its leader,” Singh said.
Choudhary’s elevation is in line with the BJP’s longer-term strategy to consolidate support among non-Yadav backward communities, traditionally a key base of the JDU.
Setting aside past differences, Choudhary described Nitish as a “pioneer of Bihar’s development” and pledged to carry forward his legacy.