Samrat Choudhary has been sworn in the new Chief Minister of Bihar it has been a historic political move in Bihar since now the state is ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Formally breaking a two-decade JD(U) hegemony in the state, Choudhary, a 57-year-old, replaced a long and multi-term rule of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who resigned. A BJP-led NDA government in the Hindi-heartland state began with a ceremony in Patna that saw the oath of office and secrecy giving to Choudhary being administered by Governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) in presence of the top BJP leaders and the allies partners.

Historic BJP takeover

This was the first occasion that the BJP was on the waiting list to take the Chief Minister office in Bihar and Choudhary is the first party leader to have been offered the Chief Minister office in the state ever since the party has been the largest party in the NDA but not the head of the government. BJP emerged the largest party by far in the assembly with 89 seats in the 243 seats in the assembly and officially nominated Choudhary as the leader of the BJP legislative party making him officially the candidate to the highest office. His nomination is being interpreted as an evident re-alignment of power in Bihar where JD(U) centric model is being overthrown by the BJP in the state executive with all the tricks playing in their favor.

Portrait and political value.

One of the OBC leaders, Samrat Choudhary is linked to Koeri, which is one of the largest caste blocks in Bihar politics. He has the experience of dealing with law and order, administration and inter-party coordination as he served as the Deputy Chief Minister and the sensitive home portfolio in the previous Nitish Kumar administration. Even his ascendancy is symbolic: He is only the second member of the Koeri community to have occupied the Chief Minister chair, after the short-lived Satish Prasad Singh in 1968, and he is one of just a few leaders who have served as deputy- and chief-minister in Bihar.

This ruling by Choudhary is considered by BJP to unify the non-Yadav OBC block of constituencies, to counter the upper caste electorates in the alliance which have traditional Kurmi bastions, as well as to balance old fashioned Kurmi bastions of JD(U). He has already positioned himself as a low profile leader with an organisational-and-administration-oriented leader who will bring development, discipline and sustainability to the governance and introduce a more BJP touch to the policy and patronage systems.

Challenges ahead

The atmosphere is that of festivities, and yet Choudhary is succeeding to a complicated lineage; a state with enormous unemployment levels, a dilapidated infrastructure, and caste conflicts, a coalition formula that will necessarily have to be perpetually managed in between JD(U) and other partners. Having Nitish Kumar in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP needs to make sure that the NDA does not break up as Bihar gears up to the next assembly election and more and more the forces of the RJD led Mahagathbandhan challenge the government. What will really count to Choudhary will be to ensure that this symbolic first BJP CM is translated into long term performance based governance that will not only be able to cement the alliance but also be able to make the electorate trust the alliance in the next few years.