Meet OP Choudhary, the IAS-turned-MLA who is likely the next Chhattisgarh CM

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hasn’t yet announced the CM candidate for Chhattisgarh after achieving a landslide victory in the state assembly elections. The BJP won 54 out of 90 seats in the state elections.

• All eyes are now on the IAS-turned-MLA Om Prakash Choudhary, also known as OP Choudhary, who has scored his maiden win from the Raigarh seat, defeating Congress’s Prakash Shakrajeet by a margin of 64,000 votes.
• Choudhary, who is said to be close to Home Minister Amit Shah, is among the frontrunners for the Chief Minister (CM) post in Chhattisgarh.

छत्तीसगढ़ के युवाओं को सशक्त करना भारतीय जनता पार्टी की सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता रहेगी।

श्री @OPChoudhary_Ind जी
रायगढ़ विधायक
भाजपा छत्तीसगढ़ pic.twitter.com/TGvkJERXWy

— BJP Chhattisgarh (@BJP4CGState) December 4, 2023

Who is OP Choudhary?

• He is an IAS officer of the 2005 batch, and is also the first IAS officer from the state of Chhattisgarh.
• Choudhary’s phenomenal work in the state earned him the Prime Minister Excellence in Public Administration Award for 2011-12, under the UPA government.
• The Raigarh win is his maiden victory in assembly polls. The bureaucrat had also contested the elections in 2018.
• Choudhary joined the BJP in 2018, and it was said that the then CM, Raman Singh, was behind his inclusion in the party.
• Choudhary comes from a very modest background. His father Dinanath Choudhary was a government teacher.
• He is also the first IAS from his village, and had cracked the UPSC exam in his first attempt itself.

Choudhary, who has been the collector of Raigarh, is hailed as a hero in his village.

Amit Shah had advised him against entering politics

• Little do people know that Home Minister Amit Shah had advised Choudhary against joining politics. 
• It was on the insistence of former CM Raman Singh that Choudhary entered politics and contested elections from the Kharsia seat in 2018.
• However, luck didn’t favour him back then, and he badly lost the elections as the party tumbled to a mere 15 seats in the state.
• In 2021, Choudhary, while speaking to The Print, said that Amit Shah had once advised him to not to venture into politics given that he was an IAS officer, since it carries a lot of hardship.
• In 2018, Choudhary met Shah, who asked him to reconsider his decision of joining politics, as he could also become Chief Secretary after having spent nearly 13 years as a civil servant.
• “He stated that politics carries a lot of hardships and most of those who see us at the helm do not care about what all goes in the making of a successful politician. But I insisted I was reluctant to reconsider my decision,” Choudhary said.
• The former IAS officer might have regretted his decision after losing the 2018 assembly elections, but certainly not today, when he is among the top contender as the CM of the state.
• Even if Raman Singh is declared the CM, Choudhary might be declared his deputy or he might be given some strong portfolios in the government.

A decision on Chhattisgarh from the party high command is awaited.