After Nitish Kumar stepped down from the post, political change in Bihar has come as expected as he announced his entry into Rajya Sabha. Once Nitish signaled his exit from state politics, the BJP put forward its most prominent and politically viable face in Bihar, Samrat Chaudhary, to take charge of the government. However, the historical change in Magadha had its own flavor of ups and downs as well as Nitish’s rise to power. The man who once wore saffron muretha As a public pledge to oust Nitish from power, he has now got the chair which the JDU chief had occupied for two decades. Samrat Chaudhary’s long and dramatic promise has been fulfilled not through confrontation, but through a force in politics that almost always delivers results at the right time. Patience. Samrat Choudhary, who was unanimously elected leader of the NDA legislature party, has now become the new face of power in Bihar and the first BJP leader to lead the state government. His rise is a defining moment not only for the BJP’s expansion in Bihar, but also for a politician whose career has been built on reinvention, ambition and sharp political instincts.

emperor’s political stalwart

Chaudhary’s journey to the top has hardly followed the traditional BJP path. Unlike many leaders nurtured within the Sangh ecosystem, he comes from outside that circle. His father, veteran politician Shakuni Chaudhary, was a founding member of the Samata Party and a contemporary of both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. Samrat himself started with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the 1990s and entered the government early on, serving as a minister under Rabri Devi. Over the years, he moved to different political camps, spending time in the JD(U) before eventually joining the BJP. That change transformed his career. His rise has been rapid since his entry into the party. In less than a decade, he rose from a late leader to state president, then deputy chief minister and now chief minister.

Interrelationship between Emperor and BJP

The rise of BJP in Bihar has been slow but sure. In the 2015 assembly elections, it emerged as the largest party in terms of vote share by securing 25 per cent votes and 53 seats, yet remained out of power as the RJD and JD(U), with 80 and 71 seats respectively, formed the government in alliance. When Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in 2017, the balance within the alliance had started changing. This change became evident in the 2020 elections, when the BJP outperformed the JD(U), winning 74 seats against its ally’s 43 seats. Nitish Kumar remained the Chief Minister, but the BJP had established itself as a strong force in the alliance.By the 2025 elections, that transition was complete. Although the NDA once again contested the elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, the BJP emerged as the major partner with 89 seats, ahead of JD(U)’s 85. Even though Nitish retained the post of Chief Minister, the BJP strengthened its hold on the government by acquiring important ministries like Home. Within a year, that growing dominance in the party culminated in the installation of Samrat Chaudhary as the first BJP Chief Minister of Bihar.

muretha fast

The turning point came in 2022, when Nitish Kumar broke ties with NDA and again joined hands with RJD. The BJP responded by handing over the reins of its Bihar unit to Chaudhary. It was then that he made the pledge that defined his political personality. Wearing Muretha in every public function, he announced that he would not remove it until Nitish Kumar remained the Chief Minister.The image stuck. The turban became both a political symbol and a personal brand. For almost two years, this marked him as Nitish’s most obvious rival. Then came the irony.When Nitish returned to the NDA in 2024 and Chaudhary himself became the deputy chief minister in the new alliance, the old rivalry gave way to partnership.Soon after, in Ayodhya, Choudhary ended the symbolism.After offering prayers and taking a dip in Saryu, he took down the Muretha and offered it in the temple and declared his vow fulfilled. Nitish was in office at that time. Now, with Nitish moving out of Bihar and moving into the Rajya Sabha, the deeper meaning of that oath finally seems to be materializing.

Why has BJP supported Samrat?

For the BJP, Choudhary checks many strategic boxes. He is one of the strongest OBC faces of the party in Bihar and belongs to the Kushwaha or Koeri community, a politically influential group that forms a significant part of the state’s voters. With the Kurmi base long associated with Nitish Kumar, this gives the BJP a strong social coalition among backward caste voters.

How will caste mathematics work?

By installing prominent Kushwaha leader Chaudhary in the chief minister’s chair, the BJP is making a direct bid for the Koeri-Kushwaha vote, a politically influential group within Bihar’s non-Yadav OBC spectrum. The Kushwaha community alone constitutes about 4.2 per cent of the state’s population and forms a significant part of the 12.86 per cent non-Yadav OBC voters that the BJP has been aggressively courting in recent years.

The move also allows the BJP to partially inherit Nitish Kumar’s backward caste mathematics while reducing its dependence on him. Nitish’s strength has long rested on the Extremely Backward Class or EBC, which constitutes 36.01 per cent of Bihar’s population. Although divided among 113 castes, a large non-Muslim EBC section, including Kurmi and Koeri voters, has traditionally stood behind them. With Nitish sidelined, the BJP is attempting to prevent that faction from slipping by projecting Chaudhary as a backward caste leader who is capable of keeping sections of that support base together. The BJP has retained its traditional upper caste base among Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumihars and Kayasthas, while expanding steadily among non-Yadav OBCs and EBCs.

beyond caste

Samrat’s appeal is not just in caste arithmetic. Choudhary has been active in Bihar politics since 1990 and has witnessed every major political phase in the state, from the Mandal-era churn to alliance realignment and the expansion of the BJP. That long experience coupled with his administrative experience in key ministries like Finance, Urban Development and Panchayati Raj has helped position him as much more than just a symbolic appointment.His rise has often been compared to that of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Like Sarma, Chaudhary came to the BJP from outside, carried the burden of earlier political affiliations, and yet became one of the most trusted regional leaders for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Controversies have also been taking place during this period. His name came up in a 1995 murder case, although he has consistently denied wrongdoing and says no charges were brought against him. In 1999, he briefly resigned as minister due to questions raised about his age. Political opponents have also expressed doubts over his academic revelations. However, none of these episodes have slowed his progress. What makes his appointment politically powerful is the layered irony within it. The person who built his recent identity around opposing Nitish Kumar has inherited Bihar only after becoming Nitish’s ally. The challenger has become the successor. In Magadha, where political memory runs deep and symbols matter, that arc gives unusual weight to this change. Bihar now has a new Chaudhary, and his Murretha pledge, once seen as a dramatic gesture, has largely ended with the prophecy fulfilled.