Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Awadh Bihari Choudhary from Siwan is all set to become the new Bihar Assembly Speaker on Friday. The 75-year-old former minister, who has had a stint in the Janata Dal (United) too, is one of the most experienced legislators in the House. He succeeds Vijay Kumar Sinha who stepped down from the post on Wednesday and is now the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
Choudhary was chosen not just because of his experience but also because he belongs to the Yadav community, which is categorised as an Other Backward Class (OBC). At the time of the chief ministerships of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, Choudhary was the face of the “Y (Yadav)” component of the RJD’s Muslim-Yadav, or MY, core constituency in Siwan while the late MP Mohammed Shahabuddin was the party’s biggest Muslim face in the region. Choudhary served as the public health and engineering department minister from 1995 to 2000 and was the rural development minister between 2000 and 2005.
A science graduate, Choudhary started his electoral innings from Siwan in 1985 as a Janata Party candidate. He retained the seat in the 1990 and 1995 polls for the Janata Dal and as an RJD candidate in the 2000 and 2005 February polls. He, however, lost to the BJP’s Vyas Deo Prasad in the October 2005 election. Prasad retained the seat in 2010 too while Choudhary switched over to the JD(U). With the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dominating state politics, Prasad retained Siwan in the 2015 elections too. After 2015, Choudhary returned to the RJD fold and five years later he won again from Siwan.
“Choudhary’s choice as Speaker by the party is most probably because it did not have a minister from the Siwan region,” said an RJD leader. Party spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said, “In Choudhary, we have got an able administrator as the custodian of the Assembly.”
After filing his nomination on Thursday, Choudhary said, “It is a matter of pride to get the prestigious position.” This is the second time since 2005 that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has conceded Speaker’s position to an ally (Kumar conceded the position to Sinha while in the NDA). This, according to political observers, maybe because his bargaining power has decreased as the JD(U) is the junior partner in the alliance. It is the third-largest party in the Assembly (45 seats) behind the BJP (77 seats) and the RJD (79 seats).