O. P. Choudhary

Om Prakash Choudhary (born 2 June 1981) is an Indian politician and serving as the Minister of Finance of Government of Chhattisgarh. He was former Indian Administrative Service Officer, who is currently serving as a member of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly representing Raigarh since 2023. He previously served as the Collector of Raipur district.

Personal life
Choudhary was born in Bayang village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, his father was a school teacher, who passed away when Choudhary was 8 years old.

Choudhary completed his education in various village government schools. He attained B.Sc. in mathematics, Physics and Electronics from Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University and cleared the UPSC in 2005 batch to join the Indian Administrative Service becoming one of the youngest officers at the age of 22.

Choudhary is married to Dr. Aditi Patel.

IAS career
Choudhary was posted as SDM in Durg District and later as CEO zilla panchayat in Janjgir & Surguja districts.

He was later posted as Municipal commissioner in the state capital Raipur, and became the Director of Public Relations.

Choudhary served as the Collector in Dantewada, Janjgir and Raipur districts, Until he resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in August 2018.

O. P. Choudhary was awarded with Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration for his educational initiatives in Dantewada by the Government of India.

Political career
Choudhary resigned as the collector of Raipur, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018, in the presence of Raman Singh.

He unsuccessfully contested the 2018 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly election from Kharsia Assembly constituency and lost to Umesh Nandkumar Patel of the Indian National Congress.

In 2023, O. P. Choudhary became a Member of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, from Raigarh Assembly constituency with a margin of 64443 votes. He became the youngest minister in the Vishnudeo Sai ministry.

On 29 December 2023, he took charge as the Minister for Finance, Commercial Tax, Housing And Environment, Planning and Economics & Statistics.