Madhya Pradesh | Mohan Yadav made CM; 2 deputies; Tomar is Speaker

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sprung a surprise with its choice of chief minister for Madhya Pradesh: Mohan Yadav. State BJP president VD Sharma confirmed the news on Monday (December 11).

The saffron party made the announcement after its legislature meeting on Monday (December 11). It has also named two deputy chief ministers — Jagdish Devda and Rajesh Shukla. Narendra Tomar has been selected as the Speaker.

Outgoing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan proposed the name of Yadav, the BJP MLA from Ujjain South, for the top post at a meeting of the newly-elected legislators held in the evening in Bhopal in the presence of party's central observers, Sharma said.

OBC leader

The 58-year-old Yadav, an OBC leader, was higher education minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government.

Yadav was born on March 25, 1965, in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain. He is a businessman and has been associated with the BJP for many years.

Yadav won his first election in the state in 2013, and went on to be re-elected in 2018. He took oath as a Cabinet minister in the Chouhan government in July 2020.

In the November 17 Assembly elections, Yadav defended his Ujjain South seat, winning by 12,941 votes against the Congress’s Chetan Premnarayan Yadav. His third consecutive MLA term came with 95,699 votes.

The Ujjain South constituency, in Malwa North region, comes under the Ujjain Lok Sabha constituency. It has been with the BJP since 2003.

Close to RSS

Yadav, who was not seen as among contenders for the CM post, is considered to be close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and is a three-time MLA and a prominent leader of OBCs, who account for more than 48 per cent of the state's population.

With this, the BJP has reposed its faith in OBC leaders for the fourth time since 2003 when Uma Bharti was made the chief minister.

After Bharti, Madhya Pradesh saw two more OBC CMs from the BJP — Babulal Gaur and Chouhan.

The BJP retained power in the state in the November 17 elections, winning 163 seats in the 230-member House, leaving the Congress a distant second with a mere 66 seats.

In run-up to the polls, the BJP did not project a CM face and relied heavily on the mass appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who campaigned extensively in the state.

Yadav will succeed the 64-year-old Chouhan, a four-time CM who took office in 2005, 2008, 2013, and 2020 and was the BJP’s longest serving chief minister.

(With agency inputs)