PATNA, April 15 -- For chief minister-designate Samrat Choudhary, who is set to lead the new NDA government in Bihar after formally taking oath of the top office on Wednesday replacing outgoing chief minister Nitish Kumar, a political giant, has a political career that spans almost four decades. However, pundits will weigh him as a pinch hitter who has scored political points by his organisational skills and political acumen. Hailing from a political family with father Shakuni Choudhary being a multiple-time MP and MLA, Samrat started his political career with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) way back in 1990s and became a MLA for the first time in 2000 assembly polls. Till now when he is taking oath state's CM, he has become MLA three times and MLC two times. He represents the family borough of Tarapur in Munger district. He has been caught in many controversies, but he is an articulate orator with an ability to make measured statements - an ability that kept him an arm's length from trouble, especially in 2025 when the state went to polls. His rise in the BJP came soon after he joined the saffron party in 2017 by leaving JD(U) after a long stint in the RJD which he left in 2014 along with several MLAs who had left the party to form their own group. In 2023, he was made the BJP state president and later he became the deputy chief minister in early 2024 after chief minister Nitish Kumar realigned with the BJP for the second time by leaving the opposition Grand Alliance of RJD-Congress coalition government, which lasted for 17 months from August 2022 to January 2024 Unlike many top BJP stalwarts in Bihar who have risen through the ranks since the party's formative years in early 80s and 90s, Choudhary, despite having joined the BJP only in 2017-18, has got key posts in the BJP in the last few years registering his meteoric rise. Many political observers feel it is the former's caste Kushwaha, which forms around 5% and has close traditional caste ties with Nitish Kumar's Kurmis, that has worked in his favour. "Samrat Choudhary is an OBC face and a formidable leader of Kushwahas. This is one of the primary factors that the BJP has made a big bet on him hoping to widen its OBC caste base, that include a wide net of extremely backward classes ( EBCs), who till now have remained aligned with the JD(U). Of course, Choudhary's own self-effacing ways and his ability to work as a team man has seemingly helped him to become the consensus CM candidate of the NDA with approval from chief minister Nitish Kumar himself," said D M Diwakar, a senior political analyst and former director of A N Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Patna, Of course, Choudhary now set to take the reins of Bihar on Wednesday has many a challenges and had courted controversies over his age in his early political innings in 1999, a fact opponents of the BJP CM-designate like Jan Suraj founder Prashant Kishore and RJD national working president Tejashwi Prasad Yadav have raised vociferously during the campaign of the last 2025 assembly polls. Old timers in state politics recall how Choudhary had to resign in a huff in 1999 from ministership in the then RJD government led by former chief minister Rabri Devi after allegations surfaced that the former was 'underage'. Ironically, the BJP then in opposition was at the forefront to level the allegations. Jan Suraj founder had also accused Choudhary of making false claims of his higher educational qualification, a fact the deputy CM has refuted many times. However, leaders in both the NDA and opposition RJD do admit that Choudhary understands the nuances of Bihar politics well though he may not have climbed the ladder through any big movement unlike his senior colleagues be it RJD chief Lalu Prasad or CM Kumar, who were products of the 1974 students movement led by eminent socialists and freedom fighter Jay Prakash Narayan. "Samrat has the ability to make his presence felt and has been at the right place at the right time. This is key for politics," said a senior NDA leader. Samrat's name denotes a king, someone, who home minister Amit Shah said, during the Bihar campaign, would rise to become a "bada aadmi" (an exalted man). It has come true, and now it is turn of Samrat to come true of expectations that the exalted office has brought to him....