Who are Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha? Likely deputy CMs in Nitish Kumar govt in Bihar

Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal (United) president, Sunday resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar, saying "things were not working well" for him in the Mahagathbandhan and the INDIA bloc. He staked claim to form a new government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party he had dumped less than 18 months ago.

The new Bihar government is likely to have two deputy chief ministers – Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP, news agency ANI reported citing sources. 

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Meanwhile, Samrat Choudhary was today elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party in Bihar, while Vijay Kumar Sinha was elected its deputy leader.

"In the legislative party meeting held today, BJP MLAs approved the proposal to form an NDA government in the state with JD(U)'s support. State BJP president Samrat Chaudhary was elected leader of the legislative party and Vijay Sinha was elected deputy leader," PTI quoted Vinod Tawde, the BJP's in-charge of Bihar as saying.

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Senior BJP leader Tarkishore Prasad told PTI-Video that "most certainly" Choudhary and Sinha will be the party's choice for the post of deputy chief ministers in the government.

Other party leaders likely to be made ministers in the new Bihar government are Nitin Nabin, Shahnawaz Hussain, Rampreet Paswan, Neeraj Singh Babloo, besides Tarkishore Prasad, another BJP leader told the news agency.

Who is Samrat Choudhary?

Rakesh Kumar alias Samrat Choudhary—BJP MLC and leader of the party in the Legislative Council—is an OBC leader belonging to the powerful koeri community. 

His father, Shakuni Chaudhary, a former army man-turned-politician and well-known socialist leader, was a founding member of the Samata Party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency as a member of the Samata Party.

Samrat was a minister in the RJD government headed by Rabri Devi and remained with the party till 2014. In 2014, he became part of a rebel faction and joined the JD(U) government headed by Jitan Ram Manjhi. Three years later, disillusioned with the JD(U), he joined the saffron party in 2018. The party recognised his potential, both as a fiery speaker and as a leader belonging to the prominent Koeri caste, and made him the vice-president of the state unit.

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Known to be a vocal critic of Nitish Kumar, Choudhary had started wearing a turban after the JD(U) supremo dumped the BJP last year, vowing to take it off only after his party returns to power.

He was appointed as Bihar BJP chief last year reportedly due to his closeness to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Choudhary had replaced Sanjay Jaiswal, who belongs to the Vaishya community, another backward class or OBC. 

The BJP chose Samrat Choudhary to lead the party in Bihar to take the ruling Mahagathbandhan, consisting of Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar, RJD of Lalu Prasad/Tejashwi Yadav, Congress and Left parties.

Who is Vijay Kumar Sinha?

Vijay Kumar Sinha—a member of the BJP and an MLA from Lakhisarai constituency since 2010—is leader of the opposition in the Bihar legislative assembly. He was the Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from 25 Nov 2020 to 24 August 2022. Sinha resigned from his post following a no-confidence motion against him by the current ruling Mahagathbandhan.

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Samrat Choudhary said when a proposal came from Nitish Kumar's side to form a new government, the BJP supported it.

"It is an emotional moment for me that today I have been selected as the leader of the Legislative Assembly party. I thank PM Modi and everyone for this. The public support that we got in 2020 for the development of Bihar and to end the terror of Lalu Prasad has to be established again in the form of NDA. When Nitish Kumar's proposal came to the BJP, we decided to support it. We have resolved to win 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar," he said.