Bihar Assembly Elections 2025 | Samrat Choudhary's affidavit leaves room for controversy over age, educational qualification

Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who is contesting the assembly polls from Tarapur constituency on a BJP ticket, has declared moveable and immoveable assets worth over Rs 10 crore, while leaving room for controversy over his age and educational qualification.

The senior BJP leader, who submitted his documents on Thursday, also admitted to have two criminal cases pending against him, one at Patna for allegedly defying prohibitory orders in 2023 and another in his native district of Munger, where Tarapur is situated, for "violation" of the model code of conduct during the Lok Sabha polls last year.

Choudhary, who is contesting an assembly election after more than a decade, while enjoying a second consecutive term in the state legislative council, owns moveable assets worth Rs 99.32 lakh and immoveable assets worth Rs 8.28 crore in his own name.

The assets include property inherited from ancestors, a Bolero car, a non-prohibited bore rifle and a revolver which has been given to him by his father, Shakuni Choudhary, a veteran politician who has retired from public life.

Choudhary’s wife Kumari Mamta, a lawyer by profession, also owns moveable assets worth Rs 27.89 lakh and immoveable assets worth Rs 1.08 crore.

Both are in possession of 200 grams of gold each, having a total worth of Rs 40 lakh , besides 500 grams of silver, valued at about Rs 75,000, owned by his wife.

The 23-page affidavit, however, does not throw much light on his exact date of birth and educational qualifications, which have been in the spotlight in recent times because of a series of allegations levelled against him by Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor.

Kishor had alleged that Choudhary had escaped trial in a 1995 case, regarding the killing of seven people in Tarapur, by submitting a “fake” certificate that showed him as a minor at the time of the incident.

The affidavit states Choudhary’s age to be 56 years, “as per the voters’ list”, but no school certificate has been appended by the leader, who mentions having received an honorary D.Litt.

Among the litany of allegations by Kishor is the charge that Choudhary has not studied till Class X.

Nonetheless, the Deputy CM mentions as his highest qualification a “PFC” obtained from “Kamaraj University”.

Of late, several videos have been viral on social media in which, following Kishor’s allegations, Choudhary can be seen struggling to explain to journalists what “PFC” stood for.