Shakuni Choudhary (born 4 January 1936) is an Indian politician who is a founding member of

Samata Party The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, now led by Uday Mandal its National President. Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar. It was ...

. He was elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

, lower house of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

from

Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 40 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Bihar state in eastern India. Assembly segments Since last delimitation exercise, from 2009 Lok Sabha elections Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency comp ...

as member of the

. Choudhary has been known for political defection and has remained

Deputy Speaker The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

in the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated m ...

. He was a former loyal to the

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

(RJD) but left the party on the ground of it promoting the interest of

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former List of Chief Ministers of Bihar, Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Ministry of Railways (India), Railway ...

's family. The defection happened soon after his son

Samrat Choudhary Samrat Choudhary alias Rakesh Kumar is an Indian politician, who is currently serving as List of deputy chief ministers of Bihar, Deputy Chief minister of Bihar under Nitish Kumar. He is a Member of Bihar Legislative Council from the Bharati ...

orchestrated a split in RJD by alienating thirteen MLAs to seek recognition as separate splinter group.

Personal life

Choudhary was born on 4 January 1936in Lakhanpur village of

Munger district Munger district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state in eastern India. Munger city is the administrative headquarters of this district. Munger district is a part of Munger Division. Its literacy rate of 73.3% is higher than the st ...

. He is married to Parvati Devi. Choudhary belongs to

Koeri The Koeri (spelt as Koiry or Koiri) and also referred to as Kushwaha and Maurya in several parts of North India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. According ...

community and had claimed to hold significant hold over his community in the state. His ancestral village is in Lakhanpur in Tarapur block of

. His son

is a Member of Legislative Council from the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

. Choudhary has served in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

for 15 years after that he joined active politics.

Political career

Choudhary was elected to the

from Tarapur constituency in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

in 1985 as

Independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

. Later joined

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

and won the same seat in

1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

. In

1995 Bihar Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in March 1995, to elect the 324 members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Janata Dal got a decisive victory in the state; political manoeuvre ensured Lalu Prasad Yadav's victory in the chief ministership. ...

, he shifted allegiance to

of George Fernandes. In 1995 Bihar Assembly elections, the Tarapur constituency came into limelight, when the candidate of

, Sachidanand Singh was attacked by

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s along with his supporters. Singh was taken to a hospital at Tarapur; the hospital was subsequently attacked and Singh was assassinated. In these subsequent incidents, nine people were killed. A total of thirty three people were accused in this case, among them, Choudhary was one of the main accused. However, the investigations were halted after some time. Soon after this incident, in the counting of votes, Choudhary was declared winner in the 1995 Assembly elections. In 1998, he was elected to

from Khagaria,

as member of the

by defeating Anil Kumar Yadav of

. He was elected to

in 2000 Bihar Election from Tarapur constituency as a member of

and was made a minister in Rabri Devi cabinet. In 2015, he joined the

rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

Jitan Ram Manjhi Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 6 October 1944) is an Indian politician from the eastern state of Bihar who served as its 23rd Chief Minister from 20 May 2014 to 20 February 2015. He is President of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). Previously, he had serv ...

and joined

Hindustani Awam Morcha Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (translation: ''Indian People's Front''; abbreviated as HAM-S) is an Indian political party having presence in Bihar. HAM(S) got new symbol wok in Bihar Assembly Election 2020. Formation It was launched forma ...

a party created by Manjhi after his exit from

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal Pra ...

. He was made Bihar State President of

. He again contests in 2015 Bihar Election from Tarapur constituency as a member of

but lost to Mewalal Chaudhary of

by about 12,000 votes. After the dismal performance of the party, he quit the Party chief position and politics. However in 2019, Choudhary addressed a meeting of the

leaders and gave indication of joining active politics once again with the membership of the BJP.

References

External links

Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Shakuni India MPs 1998–1999 1941 births Lok Sabha members from Bihar Samata Party politicians Living people Janata Dal politicians Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians People from Munger district Bihar MLAs 1990–1995 Bihar MLAs 1985–1990 Bihar MLAs 1995–2000 Bihar MLAs 2000–2005 Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 Hindustani Awam Morcha politicians