One of the first leaders to congratulate Samrat Choudhary on being elected as the BJP Legislature Party leader was Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief and Rajya Sabha MP, Upendra Kushwaha. In a post on X addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kushwaha wrote: “People of Bihar had expected this (Samrat’s elevation) from you…” He also expressed his gratitude toward Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president Nitin Nabin.Another prominent Kushwaha voice to react was ex-MP Nagmani Kushwaha, son of late socialist firebrand Jagdeo Prasad. Nagmani hailed Samrat’s elevation to the Chief Minister’s post as the culmination of the struggle of his father, often dubbed “Bihar’s Lenin”. Prasad had died in the wake of a police lathi-charge in 1974. A colony in Patna has been named after him.In Bihar now, Samrat has emerged as the eminent Kushwaha leader, overtaking Upendra Kushwaha, who, despite a pan-Bihar appeal, could not reach the CM’s chair. While Samrat’s father, Shakuni Choudhary — a former MP from Khagaria and ex-MLA from Tarapur — was a respected leader, he lacked the statewide resonance his son now commands.With Samrat taking the reins of the BJP-led NDA government, the journey of the third caste group in the Triveni Sangh confederation seems to have reached a landmark. Formed in Kargahar, Shahabad region, on May 30, 1933, the Triveni Sangh was an association of three prominent OBC groups: Yadavs, Kurmis and Koeris (Kushwahas). Its founders, Choudhary JNP Mehta, Sardar Jagdeo Singh Yadav, and Shivpujan Singh, sought a unified front of these three communities. While Kushwaha leader Satish Prasad Singh became the CM in 1968, it was a symbolic five-day tenure designed merely to facilitate the transfer of power to BP Mandal, who had toppled the Samyukta Socialist Party-led government of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha. At the time, Jagdeo Prasad had also harboured chief ministerial ambitions, but Mandal preferred the less ambitious Singh.The first pillar of the Triveni Sangh, Yadavs, initially tasted power through BP Mandal and Daroga Prasad Rai. However, the real transfer of power from the upper-caste-dominated Congress leaders to the OBC leaders occurred after Lalu Prasad’s ascension in 1990. Yadav politics dominated the state for 15 years under Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi up to 2005, interrupted only by Nitish Kumar’s seven-day stint in 2000. Yadavs remain the state’s most populous OBC caste at 14.4 per cent.Nitish Kumar represented the dominance of the second pillar of the Triveni Sangh, Kurmis (2.8 per cent of the population). Despite its smaller numbers, Nitish defied political pundits to become the state’s longest-serving CM, clocking nearly 20 years and surpassing the record of Bihar’s first premier, Dr. Srikrishna Singh.The third pillar, Koeri (Kushwaha) community, the second-largest OBC group at 4.2 per cent, had to wait decades for the top job. Upendra Kushwaha, once Nitish Kumar’s protégé, eventually fell out with him. He spent years experimenting, forming parties, merging his party with the JD(U) and leaving again, but failed to consolidate the “Luv-Kush” (Kurmi-Koeri) combine or establish himself as the undisputed leader of his community.Story continues below this adIt is now Samrat Choudhary who has seized the moment. His rise is an intriguing study of a leader propelled by circumstance. Though he started his career in the late 1990s and became an MLA from Parbatta in 2000, he was not considered a heavyweight leader until he left the JD(U) to join the BJP in 2017.He joined the BJP just as it was searching for an aggressive, non-upper-caste face. After the decline of former Bihar Deputy CM late Sushil Kumar Modi, the BJP experimented with “lightweight” deputies like Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi. When Nitish switched sides in August 2022, a vacuum opened. Samrat filled it with a belligerent opposition style that caught the eye of the BJP’s high command. He famously donned a turban, vowing to remove it only after ousting Nitish. His reward was the BJP state president’s post in 2023.However, when Nitish returned to the NDA fold in January 2024, Samrat pivoted. Chosen as the BJP Legislature Party leader and Deputy CM, he built a surprisingly strong personal bond with Nitish as the latter’s health declined. Samrat eventually visited Ayodhya and removed his turban after a ritual bath in the Saryu River.As Samrat began shouldering the administrative load, JD(U) insiders began viewing him as Nitish’s successor. “The JD(U) has perhaps found a socialist CM option from within the saffron camp,” saidStory continues below this ada JD(U) source. By mid-2025, Samrat had become “Nitish’s man” within the BJP.The historical trajectory of the Triveni Sangh provides a context. Formed to resist the upper-caste landlords’ oppression of lower-caste farmers, its tagline was: “Sanghe Shakti Kaliyuge” (Unity is the only strength in Kalyug).In its first major act of defiance, the Triveni Sangh submitted a list of OBC candidates to Dr. Rajendra Prasad for the 1937 provincial elections. When the Congress refused, it cemented the perception of the party as being dominated by the upper-caste elite. Though the Triveni Sangh failed to win seats in 1937, it acted as a social catalyst. By 1939, the association tasted success for the first time, winning four seats in the Shahabad district board polls.Though the movement lost steam by 1942 as its leaders were co-opted by the Congress or M N Roy’s Radical Democratic Party, its legacy lingered. Leaders like Dasu Singh, Navdeep Chandra Ghosh, and Ganpati Mandal contributed to the socialist movement led by Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. Today, with Samrat, the Triveni Sangh’s roadmap for political parity of the OBC groups seems to have come full circle.