Bhopal: A three-term MLA, Mohan Yadav, who hails from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, will be the next Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He was elected as leader of the BJP’s legislative party on Monday.
Soon after the decision of the legislative party meeting, Yadav reached Raj Bhawan along with outgoing CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior leaders, met Governor Mangubhai Patel to stake claim to form a government. During the visit, incumbent CM Chouhan submitted his resignation to the Governor from the state’s top post.
Expressing his gratitude to the BJP leadership, Yadav said, “I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party president JP Nadda for expressing trust in me for this post.”
“I thank the central and state leadership for giving the responsibility to such a small leader like me. I am a small worker of the BJP. With your love and support, I will try to fulfil my responsibilities,” Yadav told reporters.
BJP had appointed Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, the party’s national president of OBC wing, K Laxaman and national general secretary Asha Lakra as the central observers to pick the name for the next CM of Madhya Pradesh. The legislative party meeting was held at the BJP’s state headquarters here, in which Yadav’s name was elected unanimously for the top post. Chouhan proposed Yadav’s name for the top post of the state.
During the meeting, several times legislature & a big Scheduled Caste face, Jagdish Devda, and Brahmin leader from Vindhya region, Rajendra Shukla, were elected for the post of deputy CM. Meanwhile, former Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomer has been nominated for Speaker post of the state Assembly.
The decision of the BJP is a surprising move that has side-lined the big guns like Chouhan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel, Kailash Vijayvargiya, etc, who were being considered the front runners for chief ministerial post.
Nominating Yadav’s name for the post, the BJP has maintained the 20-year-long tradition of giving CMs to Madhya Pradesh from Other Backward Classes. The state has more than 51 per cent of the OBC community. Uma Bharti, Babu Lal Gour and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who were CM of the state, come from the OBC community. The move of the Saffron party is considered to keep in view the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.
Mohan Yadav, 58, was first elected as an MLA in 2013 from Ujjain South and retained the Assembly seat in 2018 and again in 2023. He was serving as the higher education minister in the outgoing CM Chouhan’s Cabinet.
Born on March 25, 1965, Yadav was associated with BJP’s student wing Akhil Bhartiya Viddhyarthi Parisad and Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh. He held several posts in the BJP duing his political career.
Yadav comes from the Ujjain region, part of the Malwa area and has been a stronghold for the BJP for decades.
BJP registered a landslide victory in November 17 polls, securing 163 seats in the 230-membered Assembly of the state. The Congress won 66 seats while one was bagged by an independent candidate.
Leaving the decades-long tradition of projecting the CM’s face, the BJP did not put any name for the post before the elections this time. In run-up to the polls, the party relied heavily on the mass appeal of PM Modi and his guarantees. However, outgoing CM Chouhan held a smashing campaign for the party holding 165 public rallies and focusing on his flagship scheme, Ladli Behna Yojana. Yadav, who belongs Other Backward Class (OBC), started his political journey with student politics in 1982. He became the co-secretary of the Student Union of Madhav Science College Ujjain and later served as its president in 1984.
Yadav also became the Ujjain president of ABVP in the same year and held the position for around two years. As a student politician, he became the state co-secretary of the ABVP and a member of the national executive in 1988. He is also known to be an active working member of the Ujjain branch of the RSS. Further, he held the post of Ujjain Development Authority chairman from 2004 to 2010.