PATNA: Samrat Choudhary took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday. He is the first BJP leader to hold the CM post in the state.
Governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) administered the oath of office and secrecy to Choudhry as chief minister and to JD(U)'s Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav as members of the Council of Ministers at the Lok Bhawan here.
"I will immediately start working for the prosperity of the state. It should remain clear that Bihar will continue to be governed on the Modi-Nitish model," Choudary said after the ceremony.
Top leaders of the ruling NDA in Bihar attended the ceremony, including Union Ministers J P Nadda and Chirag Paswan, Nitish Kumar, and all NDA MLAs.
Nitish, who had served as Bihar CM for the past two decades, resigned from CM’s post on Tuesday after his election to the Rajya Sabha. Samrat was chosen as the next CM during a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party.
Congratulating Choudary on being sworn in as the CM, Nitish Kumar expressed confidence that under his leadership, "Bihar will develop rapidly and join the ranks of the most developed states in the country."
BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi also extended best wishes to Choudhary.
"Samrat Choudhary ji will work to develop Bihar in a way that will help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve for 'Viksit Bharat 2047'... Nitish Kumar ji established the rule of law in Bihar and brought in development. The new chief minister will take his work further," he told reporters.
Samrat Choudhary began his political journey in 1990. He first became the agriculture minister in the Rabri Devi government in 1999. He was then forced to resign due to his age and lack of membership in either of the two Houses.
After parting ways with Lalu Prasad’s RJD, he joined Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). In 2014, he was sworn in as Minister of Urban Development and Housing in the Nitish Kumar government. He became Minister of Panchayati Raj in 2021, then Deputy Chief Minister in the NDA government in 2024, and now the new Chief Minister of Bihar.