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Mohan Yadav is next Madhya Pradesh CM
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday picked three-time lawmaker Mohan Yadav as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, implementing a generational shift in the heartland state that delivered the party the biggest victory in the recently concluded round of assembly elections
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday picked three-time lawmaker Mohan Yadav as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, implementing a generational shift in the heartland state that delivered the party the biggest victory in the recently concluded round of assembly elections.
Yadav, the 58-year-old former state education minister, replaces Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who ruled the state for 16 of the last 18 years over four terms. The BJP legislative party also picked two deputy CMs, two-time lawmaker and outgoing finance minister Jagdish Devda, and outgoing public relations minister Rajendra Shukla.
Former Union agriculture minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, who won the polls from Dimni in Morena district and resigned from the Lok Sabha last week, was named as the new speaker of the legislative assembly.
“I am a small worker of the party. Many thanks to the state leadership and central leadership of the party for their love and support. I will fulfil my responsibility completely,” said Yadav, the legislator from Ujjain South.
This is the first time since 1967 that Madhya Pradesh will have a deputy CM, and the first time that a BJP government has made an appointment to the position in the state. The announcement is the second for the three states that the BJP won in the recent clutch of assembly elections, and came a day after the party named tribal leader Vishu Deo Sai as the CM for Chhattisgarh. Only the decision for Rajasthan is pending, and is likely to come on Tuesday.
Yadav is among the most senior other backward classes (OBC) faces in the state unit, and also represents the key swing region of Malwa-Nimar, where the BJP won 47 of 66 seats. His elevation is seen as a major shift in the BJP in a state where Chouhan was once seen as the face of the party with a focus on farmers and welfare outreach.
“Hearty congratulations to my hardworking friend Mohan Yadav on being nominated as the CM of Madhya Pradesh … I am confident that under the able guidance of respected PM Shri Narendra Modi, you will take Madhya Pradesh to new heights of progress and development…,” Chouhan posted on X.
A strong votary of hardline Hindu politics, Yadav has headed the state wrestling association since 2009 and is also the vice-president of the state Olympics association. Yadav, who joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1983, has also courted controversy with his remarks on Mughal rulers, suggesting that they were invaders who should not be referred to as “great”.
With the appointment of the two deputies, the BJP attempted to balance representation to four important regions — Malwa-Nimar, Vindhya, and Gwalior-Chambal — and three key castes. Devda is the Dalit face of the party while Shukla is a Brahmin and Tomar a Rajput. The region unrepresented is Mahakoushal, the home region of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath.
Yadav, who represents the Ujjain South assembly seat, was elected as the legislative party leader unanimously at a meeting of lawmakers at the state BJP office in Bhopal in presence of observers, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, BJP OBC unit president K Laxman, and BJP national secretary Asha Lakra.
Chouhan proposed Yadav’s name in the presence of Tomar, former Union culture minister Prahlad Patel, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and state BJP president VD Sharma, and it was accepted at a brief meeting.
Before the legislative party meeting, the observers met Chouhan at his official residence for over an hour and then attended the BJP’s core group meeting at the party office in Bhopal. At about 4pm, the legislative party meeting was called, party leaders said.
Soon after the meeting, Chouhan met governor Mangubhai C Patel and tendered his resignation. Later, Yadav met Patel and staked claim to form the government. Yadav — who was sitting in the fifth row when a group photograph of the lawmakers was being taken minutes before the announcement — is likely to take charge on December 14 in Bhopal.
According to a senior party leader, Yadav was called to Delhi on December 6 for a short meeting with BJP chief JP Nadda. “MP in-charge and Union minister Bhupender Yadav was present at the meeting. He was asked to get ready for a big responsibility. Yadav was expecting responsibility in the organisation only,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.
Yadav’s wife Seema Yadav said his hard work had paid off. “There is no limit to our happiness. He has been working hard for the past 40 years and finally he achieved the zenith of state politics,” she said.
Prahlad Patel also congratulated Yadav and said the organisation had taken the best decision.
The Congress wished Yadav the best. “We hope that he will work without any biases for the development of MP,” said media in-charge KK Mishra.
These were the first elections in nearly two decades where the BJP chose to not project a chief ministerial face and instead focus on collective leadership under the PM, who held 14 rallies, and Union home minister Amit Shah, who handled the election management.
