No matter who wins or loses in the Bihar assembly elections, one loss has happened to BJP leader and state’s Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary. When Choudhary was made the president of Bihar BJP, it once seemed that BJP had got an alternative to JDU leader and state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. But Choudhary’s fortunes subsided only after the Lok Sabha elections last year. He had to resign from the post of state president of BJP. Jansuraj Party founder Prashant Kishore has completed the right task. Kishor made such allegations against Choudhary which till now even the staunch rivals of BJP like RJD and Congress had not made such allegations. Prashant Kishore has left Chaudhary nowhere by linking him with the fake age certificate controversy, fake degree controversy and Shilpi Gautam murder case. It cannot be denied that due to Samrat Chaudhary not giving a proper reply to the allegations leveled against Kishore, his image has been dented among the people of Bihar. Obviously, Bihar Assembly elections are going to prove to be the litmus test of Samrat Chaudhary. If Kushwaha voters are not transferred to BJP this time too, they will remain a burden on the party. Let us see how the person who was called Nitish Kumar of Bihar BJP has today become a weak link of Bihar BJP.
1-No favorable results in Lok Sabha elections
Samrat Chaudhary The period of decline had started when BJP could not get the number of seats as expected in the Lok Sabha elections. At that time, Samrat Chaudhary was also the President of Bihar BJP. BJP, which won 22 and 17 seats in 2014 and 2019 respectively, was reduced to 12 seats in 2024. Former Union Minister Ashwini Choubey had put the blame on Samrat Choudhary by saying that imported leaders cannot benefit BJP. BJP will have to trust its core workers and leaders. It is noteworthy that Samrat Chaudhary has come to BJP after moving from all the parties. Ashwini Choubey’s views were then blown away by some people by calling them her personal opinion. That was the period when brainstorming had started at the central level as to how leaders from other parties should be treated in BJP. The central leadership has also started to understand that it is right to trust its own cadre. By giving tickets to more than 100 candidates from other parties in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP has seen that they did not prove to be very effective.
BJP had trusted Samrat Chaudhary when Nitish Kumar was the only contender for Luv-Kush (Kurmi-Koeri) votes in Bihar and he had gone with the Grand Alliance India Block. BJP was hopeful that Samrat Chaudhary would prove to be suitable to bring Kushwaha votes, which have a significant population among OBCs, to its side. Perhaps because they come from the Koeri community. But, BJP did not get any benefit from this. On the contrary, Kushwaha voters expressed more confidence in the candidates of India Bloc rather than BJP or NDA.
2-No impact on Koeri voters
Samrat Chaudhary’s weak hold on Koeri voters has been exposed. During the Lok Sabha elections, NDA lost five parliamentary seats in Shahabad area. The biggest problem for BJP was that its Rajput candidate Sushil Kumar Singh lost from Rajput dominated Aurangabad seat and RJD candidate Abhay Kushwaha won. That is, Kushwaha votes went to RJD instead of BJP. Not only this, NDA constituent Rashtriya Lok Morcha President Upendra Kushwaha, who hails from the Koeri community, also had to face defeat. This proved Samrat Chaudhary’s weak hold on his community. It may also be surprising to BJP that immediately after the formation of Narendra Modi government at the Center with the help of JDU, Samrat Chaudhary announced that the next Bihar assembly elections will be fought under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. This was an announcement to discourage BJP supporters. Only after that Ashwini Choubey had said that the assembly elections should be fought under the leadership of BJP only.
3- Samrat Chaudhary does not fit into the mold of BJP’s middle class core voters.
Samrat Chaudhary may be considered the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar BJP and an influential OBC leader, but he does not fit into the mold of the party’s traditional middle-class core voters. This is the class that gives priority to organization, stability and clean politics. Samrat Chaudhary’s style, background and political image appear quite different from this framework.
Samrat Chaudhary’s political journey has come from RJD, JDU to BJP. This long ‘party-by-party’ journey does not match the BJP’s tradition of stable, thoughtful leaders. The urban, educated BJP voter likes leaders whose loyalty and ideological commitment are clear. Additionally, questions raised about his educational qualifications and assets have created uneasiness in a class that values transparency and merit.
BJP’s core voters accept leadership that has organizational discipline, policy clarity and modern governance approach. Samrat Chaudhary’s politics is still traditional, caste-based and personality-centric. This is the reason why he is still seen as an outsider among the middle class supporters of BJP. They are useful, but do not fit into the ideological framework, which is the real strength of the BJP.
4-Prashant Kishore dented the image of Samrat Chaudhary
The way Prashant Kishore presented Samrat Chaudhary as a vote bank contractor in the politics of Bihar has tarnished Chaudhary’s image a lot.
Samrat Choudhary has already been seen as a caste-based leader. BJP had put him forward to woo the Kushwaha community. But Prashant Kishor established in his public meetings and while talking to the media that Samrat Chaudhary is in BJP because he wants to play the Kushwaha card like Nitish Kumar and not to do politics on public issues. This rhetoric reduced the emperor to the image of an opportunist based on caste.
PK’s second strategy was to cut off the BJP leadership from the middle class and young voters. In which he symbolically targeted Samrat Chaudhary. He said that the leaders of Bihar are either trapped in dynasty politics or in politics of position. In this sequence, he was seen directly attacking Samrat Chaudhary. Samrat and his father have been active in politics from Samata Party and RJD to BJP. As a result, confusion arose even among the section of BJP which wanted to see Samrat as a new face.
Furthermore, Prashant Kishor’s political language is relatively policy-centric and data-based, whereas Samrat Chaudhary’s style is more aggressive, rhetorical and full of ethnic undertones. When the images of the two leaders started being compared among the media and the public, Samrat Chaudhary started appearing as an old-fashioned leader.
5-Box of controversies in the name of Samrat Chaudhary
Many controversies have been continuously associated with the name of Samrat Chaudhary. These controversies were not limited to political differences, but extended to his personal image, educational qualifications, rhetoric and political loyalty. This is the reason why he is often called a box of controversies.
First of all, the controversy related to educational qualification and age was in the headlines. In the election affidavit, Samrat Choudhary described his education as Pre-Foundation Course, which is of no more importance than a certificate. On this the opposition taunted that the Deputy Chief Minister of the state himself is not clear about his education. There are contradictions in different records regarding his year of birth. Somewhere there is mention of 1968 and somewhere there is mention of 1971.
Samrat Chaudhary started his career with RJD, then went to JDU, and now is in BJP. Opposition parties and many BJP leaders also raised the question whether he is an ideologically committed leader or an opportunist who changes sides according to the power equation. This image does not place him in the line of traditional, stable ideological leaders of BJP.
Samrat Chaudhary has many times put the party in an uncomfortable situation with his statements. Sometimes he called Nitish Kumar a ‘political thug’ and sometimes made personal comments on opposition leaders. His sharp and provocative statements go against the BJP’s restrained and disciplined image.
All these controversies together have damaged the image of Samrat Chaudhary. BJP tried to maintain political balance by making him an OBC face, but the continuous controversies established him as more of a controversial leader than a trustworthy administrator. This image will be more of a challenge for BJP in the coming assembly elections.
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