‘Mohan ji, stand up’: How Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister was named by BJP
Mohan Yadav is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s pick for the next Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, the party announced on Monday.
The announcement took everyone, including Mohan Yadav and other BJP bigwigs, by surprise. Days of suspense over the Chief Minister’s name in Madhya Pradesh came to an end, as Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced Mohan Yadav’s name.
Khattar then asked Yadav’s predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan to move the resolution proposing the Ujjain South BJP MLA’s name. Mohan Yadav was seated in the last row, and Shivraj asked him, “Arre Mohan ji, khade toh ho jaiye (Mohan ji, please stand up)”.
Among those who seconded the resolution, were Narendra Tomar and Kailash Vijayvargiya. Rajendra Shukla was also among the leaders who supported the resolution.
Shukla, along with Jagdish Devda, will be Mohan Yadav’s deputies. Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who contested the state polls, will be the Speaker.
A source at the BJP office told India Today TV that Mohan Yadav, in a chat with him earlier in the morning, had asked, “Kya lagta hai, kisko banayenge (Who do you think they will pick)?”
Mohan Yadav, during the meeting, asked a few of the MLAs seated next to him if they believed they were likely to be accommodated in the state cabinet, sources said. Little did he know, moments later, he’d be leading the state cabinet.
Mohan Yadav is an OBC leader and three-time BJP MLA from Ujjain South. He has previously served as higher education minister of Madhya Pradesh.
The Ujjain South MLA has been associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party for 30 years. He is said to be aggressive on issues of Hindutva and worked extensively in the Sangh on the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration, for which he travelled the country and talked to the people.
Mohan Yadav is a novice when it comes to administrative experience, having joined the former Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet in 2020 for the first time. But that didn’t stop the BJP top brass from hedging their bets on him ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.