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'Raj tilak to vanvas...': Shivraj Singh Chouhan's quip on political journey after losing CM post
The BJP won 163 out of 230 seats in the recently concluded MP assembly polls. The party chose Mohan Yadav as the new chief minister.
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday struck an emotional chord with the voters in his constituency Budhni, saying sometimes a person has to go on a ‘vanvas’ (exile) after coronation.
"I will not go anywhere. I will live here and die here," the BJP leader said when a couple of women sitting in the audience shouted "bhaiyya (brother), don't go anywhere leaving us alone."
Chouhan, who served as the chief minister for four terms, said,"Our govt will work, and the promises that are given to farmers will be fulfilled. Schemes like 'Ladli Behena Awas Yojana' will taken forward by the new govt. There will be some bigger objectives, 'Kai baar Raj Tilak hone ke baad vanvas ho jata hai' but it happens for the completion of some objectives".
Chouhan named his house, a government bungalow in Bhopal, as "Mama Ka Ghar" and said its doors were open for everyone. His government accommodation is located off Link Road No. 1 in the posh 74 Bungalows locality in the state capital where he moved after vacating the CM's house on relinquishing the top post last month.
Chouhan had won from his bastion Budhni by a margin of 1.04 lakh votes in the recently concluded Madhya Pradesh assembly election. The Bharatiya Janata Party registered a landslide victory by winning 163 out of 230 seats, successfully ducking anti-incumbency in the state where it has been in power for two decades.
The Congress was relegated to a distant second spot with victory in 66 assembly segments, while one seat was won by the Bharat Adivasi Party.
ALSO READ: 'Ab vida..': What Shivraj Singh Chouhan said before Mohan Yadav's oath-taking
The BJP chose Mohan Yadav, a three-time MLA from Ujjain South who had served as the education minister in Chouhan's government, as the next chief minister. Yadav an OBC face, cut his political teeth with the RSS's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the early 1980s. He became a legislator for the first time in 2013 and then won two more times including the 2023 polls.
