Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Springing yet another surprise after picking up Vishnudev Sai as the new Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday elected three-time Ujjain South MLA Mohan Yadav as the next CM of Madhya Pradesh.
The move is seen as a significant step by the BJP to pick up a Yadav as the party’s CM for the first time–apparently to woo the vote banks of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in neighboring Uttar Pradesh and Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, and also the large OBC community in the state which forms over half of the total electorate.
The BJP also named two Deputy CMs in MP—outgoing finance minister Jagdish Deora (Mandsaur MLA) and Rajesh Shukla (Rewa MLA).
Former Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, one of three former central ministers to contest last month’s Vidhan Sabha polls, will be the new Assembly Speaker. He was also seen as a contender for the CM’s post.
Dr. Yadav, 58, was the Minister of Higher Education in the outgoing Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. He will replace the longest-serving CM, Chouhan, 64, who has been at the state’s helm four times since 2005.
“This is for new energy, new hope, new development…in the new India Modiji is working for, Madhya Pradesh will lead as a model. The state under new leadership will fulfill his dreams,” BJP General Secretary and party MLA from Indore Kailash Vijayavargiya said. He was also being viewed as a possible face for the CM.
Outgoing CM Chouhan proposed Dr. Yadav’s name as his successor when the newly-elected 163 BJP MLAs gathered in Bhopal at 4 PM to elect their Legislature Party leader in the presence of three central party observers led by Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar. Chouhan also congratulated Dr. Yadav.
In his first reaction, after he was elected the CM-designate, Dr Yadav thanked the central leadership and state leadership for giving him this opportunity.
Elected as a BJP MLA for the first time in 2013, Dr. Yadav was re-elected in 2018 and 2023. He served as a Cabinet minister in Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government from 2020.
The last time the BJP sent central observers to pick up a CM in MP was when Chouhan succeeded Babu Lal Gaur and took the oath for the first time in November 2005. Earlier, the central observers were appointed in 2004 when Gaur succeeded Uma Bharti as the CM.
After the state assembly polls in 2008 and 2013, BJP remained in power and Chouhan continued as the CM. In 2018, the BJP lost power to the Congress by a thin margin. Chouhan became the CM again in 2020, amid the COVID-19 lockdowns and the fall of the Congress government led by Kamal Nath.
Dr. Mohan Yadav was born in Ujjain on March 25, 1965. He is also active in the state’s wrestling bodies and enjoys a clean image.
He is married to Seema Yadav. They have two sons and a daughter.
The next CM of Rajasthan is expected to be elected on Tuesday.