Not textbook saffron: Samrat Choudhary’s rapid rise reshapes BJP’s Bihar leadership

From RJD roots to BJP powerhouse, Samrat Choudhary’s ascent surprises party veterans.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Samrat Choudhary’s rise within the Bihar BJP has surprised even those who claim that nothing in politics surprises them anymore.

Here is a man with no RSS background, no ABVP grooming, no early Sangh initiation—yet he has, quietly and somewhat improbably, become the party’s most consequential leader in the state.

His journey is anything but textbook BJP: he started in the RJD, grew up in the political shadow of his father, Shakuni Choudhary—a key member of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s inner circle—and carried that legacy for much of his early career. The switch to saffron was dramatic enough; the speed of his ascent is what has stunned old-timers.