OBC face Mohan Yadav set to take over reins of Madhya Pradesh

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, December 11

Three-term Ujjain South MLA Mohan Yadav is all set to be the next Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh with the BJP legislature party electing him as its leader at a meeting in Bhopal on Monday.

The meeting was held under the watch of central BJP observers — Haryana CM ML Khattar, party OBC cell chief K Laxman and BJP national secretary Asha Lakra.

R’sthan CM pick today

• Newly elected BJP MLAs will meet in Jaipur at 4 pm on Tuesday to pick next Rajasthan CM. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, national V-P Saroj Pandey and national general secretary Vinod Tawde will be present as observers.

Sai’s oath tomorrow

• Vishnu Deo Sai will take oath as the fourth CM of Chhattisgarh in Raipur on December 13. PM Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders, including president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will also attend.

Education Minister in the outgoing government, Yadav — a leader from the Other Backward Classes that make up over 40% of the state’s population — met MP Governor Mangubhai Patel today and staked claim to form the government.

With the generational shift complete, it is curtains on the era of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who exits the CMO as the longest-serving BJP CM ever. It is also curtains on the BJP leadership that rose under late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with Chouhan being the last of the serving CMs of the period.

Chouhan, who held the post for 18 years starting 2005, was the first to propose Yadav’s name today. The BJP did not disturb the community balance in the state’s power structure even as it installed a new line of leadership. Both Yadav and Chouhan are OBCs. Importantly, Yadav was seen touching Chouhan’s feet and the two shared a warm space after the former’s election as the legislature party leader. Yadav’s constituency Ujjain, where Mahakaleshwar temple — one of the 12 jyotirlingas — is located, erupted in joy at the surprise announcement. Ujjain recently shot to fame with the inauguration of the redeveloped Mahakal Corridor that has spurred local economy of the entire Malwa region of MP.

The BJP generously rewarded the Malwa-Nimar segment, where it won 47 out of 66 seats this time as against just 32 in 2018. Besides the CM who is from Malwa, the party chose Jagdish Devda, a Scheduled Caste leader from Mandsaur (also in Malwa), as one of the two Deputy CMs. Devda, 66, a seven-time MLA representing Malhargarh in Mandsaur, was first elected to the Assembly in 1990 in undivided MP. He is Finance, Commercial Tax, Planning, Economics and Statistics Minister in the outgoing Cabinet. The second Deputy CM, Rajendra Shukla, 59, a four-term MLA from Bundelkhand’s Rewa, was also a minister in the Chouhan-led state Cabinet.

Former Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar from Dimani in the Gwalior-Chambal segment of the state will be the Assembly Speaker.

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