Mohan Yadav, 58, a third-term MLA who comes from the OBC community took oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday in the attendance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Lal Pared ground in Bhopal.
Jagdish Devda, known as an influential Dalit leader, who has been several times MLA and a popular Brahmin face Rajendra Shukla, was sworn in as the deputy Chief minister during the swearing-in ceremony. MP governor Mangubhai Patel administered oath to trio leaders. Devda and Shukla have been Ministers several times in the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, BJP national president JP Nadda, CMs of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharastra Yogi Aditya Nath, Puskar Singh Dhami and Eknath Shinde, former MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Singh Patel, former MP Home Minister Dr Narottam Mishra and other dignitaries attended the swearing-in ceremony.
‘We will focus on progress in education, health, employment sectors and development in all other areas in the state under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi Ji,’ the CM of the state, Yadav said to media persons.
In the recently concluded elections, the BJP registered a landslide victory securing 163 seats in the 230-membered state Assembly.
Yadav was elected leader of the BJP legislative party on Monday during a meeting in the attendance of central observers, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, K Laxman and Asha Lakra. During the meeting, BJP MLAs had named Tomar as the speaker of the MP Assembly.
Yadav, who was elected consecutively third times as MLA from the Ujjain South constituency, was the Higher Education Minister in the previous Chouhan’s cabinet. He is highly educated has a PhD degree, and has been associated with Akhil Bhartiya Viddhyarthi Parishad (ABVP)and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Yaadav started his political career with student politics.
Before taking the oath as CM, Yadav paid respects to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the founder members of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the BJP’s ideologue at the party’s state headquarters here.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls scheduled in the next year, the surprise pick of Yadav as the CM is considered to attract OBC voters whose population is more than 51 per cent in the state. The BJP has first time made deputy CMs in the state since its establishment in 1980. Earlier, Virendra Kumar Sakhlecha had held the post during Jan Sangh in 1967. The Saffron party’s move considered balancing the caste equations satisfying the upper caste and Dalit.
By making CM from the OBC community, the BJP has maintained the 20-year-long tradition in the state. Uma Bharti, Babu Lal Gour and Shivraj Singh Chouhan who have been CM of the state from the OBCs.
Leaving the decades-long tradition of projecting the CM’s face, the BJP has not put any name for the post before the elections this time. The party has gone into the election fray on the name PM Modi and his guarantees.