​A plan of change: On Bihar politics and the BJP

Samrat Choudhary was sworn in as the 24th Chief Minister of Bihar, on April 15, 2026, becoming the first-ever politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold the office. His elevation follows a pattern that the BJP has mastered for its growth — outgrowing regional partners and inverting the hierarchy in its favour. The ground realities in the State had shifted in the 2020 Bihar election when the BJP won 74 seats, overtaking the Janata Dal (United), which unexpectedly slid to 43 of the 243 seats in the Assembly. In the 2025 Assembly elections, the BJP won 89 seats while the JD(U) won 85. The BJP waited a little longer before easing out JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha after two decades as Chief Minister. Mr. Choudhary’s elevation follows yet another pattern of the BJP’s flexibility in handing over the top post to recent entrants into the party. He was in the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the JD(U) before joining the BJP in 2017. Mr. Choudhary belongs to the Koeri Kushwaha caste and has been the OBC face of the BJP. The BJP-JD(U) alliance, along with other smaller parties, has dominated Bihar politics by mobilising the upper castes, the non-Yadav OBCs and the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC). While the upper castes have limited options other than the National Democratic Alliance, the EBCs can be volatile in their party preferences.

The BJP waited six years even after overtaking the JD(U) in numerical strength, precisely out of fear of unsettling the EBC voters who trusted Mr. Kumar. Mr. Choudhary’s appointment as Chief Minister is the BJP’s direct bid to reach into the OBC-EBC base that it used to negotiate through Mr. Kumar. This transition could potentially open up new social alignments within the BJP and the JD(U). The fate of the JD(U) itself, now that Mr. Kumar is no longer at the helm, is uncertain. Mr. Choudhary has become Chief Minister on the strength of the BJP central leadership’s confidence in him, but the task of winning the confidence of party workers and voters rests entirely on his shoulders. Bihar also carries a considerable governance deficit that needs urgent attention. The State has a dynamic and young population, yet its education and health sectors remain in distress. Mr. Choudhary will have to show vision and commitment to build on the marginal gains that the State has made in recent years and focus on human development, in the absence of which any amount of infrastructure investment will be suboptimal. Bihar’s progress would have a multiplier effect on the entire country and its new Chief Minister must consolidate quickly and marshal all available forces towards that end.