AMIDST THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT SAMRAT CHOUDHARY’S, NO ONE KNOW

AMIDST THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT SAMRAT CHOUDHARY’S, NO ONE KNOW

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RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA-------------------------Rakesh Kumar, also known as Samrat Choudhary, whom Lalu Prasad Yadav had once appointed as a minister in Bihar, disregarding the rules and regulations. Samrat Choudhary, the same Rakesh Kumar, also known as Samrat Choudhary, broke away from Lalu's party in 2014. Samrat Choudhary is the son of Shakuni Choudhary, who was considered the most prominent leader of the Koeri caste in Bihar in the 1990s.

In 1999, Lalu had brought Shakuni Choudhary out of the Samata Party (Nitish's party) and into his party. Shakuni was a Samata Party MP from Khagaria. His wife was an MLA from Tarapur, and his son, Samrat, who was neither an MLA nor a member of the Legislative Council, was appointed a minister in the Rabri Devi cabinet. That too, a cabinet minister.

The age controversy in Bihar politics was so significant that the Governor dismissed Samrat Choudhary on November 16, 1999. The grounds were that Samrat was not even twenty-five years old. An affidavit filed in court was used as the basis for the case, which stated that Samrat was only 19 years old at the time. To become a minister, one must be at least 25 years old.

On May 19, 1999, Samrat became a minister without being a member of any House of Assembly. He was about to complete six months, but was dismissed three days earlier. At that time, the number of ministers in Bihar was so high that Samrat was appointed Minister of Horticulture. However, the Governor, along with dismissing him, also reimbursed all allowances and salaries he had received while serving as a minister.

Samrat's father, Shakuni Chaudhary, joined the Samata Party on October 31, 1994. The Samata Party was formed that same year under the leadership of George Nitish Kumar. On October 31, Shakuni participated in the Bihar Reconstruction Rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. He was a minister in the Bihar government at the time. He left his ministerial position and joined the Samata Party. However, after five years in the Samata Party, he returned to Lalu Prasad Yadav's fold after getting his son appointed as a minister.

Samrat has three different age documents: his date of birth is one thing, his matriculation certificate is another. However, to remove him from the ministerial post, he relied on a 1995 affidavit in which he had stated his age as 15 (May 1, 1981) to avoid being accused in a murder case. Accordingly, he was only 18-19 years old at the time of becoming a minister.

After Shakuni Choudhary's political career ended, Samrat became his successor. He won the MLA election from the Parbatta seat in Khagaria district. He lost his first election in 2005. However, in October 2005, the age issue surfaced again, and his nomination was cancelled. He had his brother contest the election as an independent, but he lost. Later, in 2010, he reappeared under the name Samrat Choudhary, also known as Rakesh Kumar, and won from the RJD. In 2014, he left the RJD and joined the JDU. He joined HAM in 2015, switched to the BJP in 2017, and has remained there ever since. He rose from state president to deputy chief minister.