1. Early life and career

2. Political career

3. Personal life

4. References

5. External links

Vijay Kumar Chaudhary (born 8 January 1957) is an Indian politician. He has been a member of Bihar Legislative Assembly since 1982, and is currently serving as the Speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly.

He has previously held the posts of Leader of Janata Dal (United) Legislature Party in Bihar Legislative Assembly^[2] and the Minister for Water Resources, Agriculture, Animal and Fish Resources and Information & Public Relations Departments in the Government of Bihar.^[3] He was considered to be the Number 2 minister in Bihar cabinet and continues to be a member of Nitish Kumar's core committee which shapes policies of the Government and the party.^[4][5]

Chaudhary served as the Home Minister-in-charge, putting forth the Government's stand on home affairs in Bihar Legislative Assembly.^[6][7] He has also held the position of Finance Minister-in-charge and presented Bihar's Annual Budget for the 2014-15 fiscal.^[8][9] Known for being an efficient administrator and a soft-spoken person with a clean image, he is a close confidante of Nitish Kumar and was speculated to succeed him as Chief Minister of Bihar following the latter's resignation after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Early life and career

Choudhary was born in Dalsinghsarai, Samastipur district of Bihar in a Bhumihar Brahman family. His father, late Jagdish Prasad Chaudhary, had been a freedom fighter, an Indian National Congress politician and a three term member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from the Dalsinghsarai constituency.^[15]. He completed his Master of Arts in History from Patna University in 1979 and joined the State Bank of India as a Probationary Officer in Trivandrum in the same year.

Political career

After the demise of his legislator father in 1982, Chaudhary resigned from his job and won the subsequent by-election from Dalsinghsarai on a Congress ticket. He was re-elected from Dalsinghsarai for two more terms in 1985 and 1990. During this stint as a legislator from 1982-1995, he served as the Deputy Chairman of Bihar State Industrial Development Corporation (BSIDC) and Deputy Chief Whip of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). He sought re-election again from Dalsinghsarai in 1995 and 2000 but lost the polls.

Chaudhary served as General Secretary of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee from 2000-2005. He joined JD(U) in 2005 and unsuccessfully contested the Bihar Legislative Assembly election, October 2005 from Sarairanjan. He was appointed as the General Secretary and Chief Spokesperson of the party in 2008. He continued to serve in this capacity until February 2010, when he was nominated as the President of Bihar JD(U) and led the party during its victory in Bihar Legislative Assembly election, 2010.^[16][17][18] He himself won the election from Sarairanjan (Vidhan Sabha constituency) with a margin of 17557 votes and was inducted as the Water Resources Minister in the newly formed cabinet,^[19] assuming charge on 26 November 2010.^[18]

Chaudhary and Nitish Kumar are credited with the completion of Durgawati Reservoir in 2014, a massive irrigation project started in 1976 which got delayed by 38 years due to land acquisition and environmental clearance related issues.^[20]

He tendered his resignation from the Council of Ministers on 7 February 2015 to protest the continuance of Jitan Ram Manjhi as Chief Minister despite the election of Nitish Kumar as the Leader of JD(U) Legislature Party.^[21]

He was elected as the Leader of JD(U) Legislature Party in the Bihar Legislative Assembly and staked claim to the opposition status. He was subsequently recognized as the Leader of Opposition on 19 February 2015 by then Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary.^[22]. Post victory in the trust vote and Nitish Kumar assuming charge as Chief Minister for the fourth time, he was inducted as the Cabinet Minister for Water Resources with the additional charge of Agriculture, Information & Public Relations and Animal and Fish Resources Departments.^[23]

He retained his Sarairanjan (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in 2015 elections with a margin of 34044 votes. He was elected unopposed to the post of Speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly on 2 December 2015 after consensus was generated on his name among all political parties of the state, including the Opposition BJP.^[24] He also serves as the Chairman of Bihar Foundation, a platform to facilitate interaction between Government of Bihar and the Bihari diaspora.

Personal life

He is married to Ganga Choudhary. The couple has a son, Shubhaditya and a daughter, Ankita.

References

External links

• {{cite web|title=Bihar cabinet minister|url=http://cm.bih.nic.in/cabinet-minister-bihar.htm|access-date=2014-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140623104909/http://cm.bih.nic.in/cabinet-minister-bihar.htm|archive-date=2014-06-23|dead-url=yes|df=}}
• {{cite web|title=Bihar foundation team|url=http://www.biharfoundation.in/team/}}
• {{cite news|title=my neta info|url=http://myneta.info/bih2010/candidate.php?candidate_id=969|accessdate=12 June 2014}}

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