BHOPAL: Mohan Yadav took oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others at Lal Parade Ground.Two Deputy Chief Ministers, Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda, also took oath.
Yadav was Education Minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government. He is considered to be close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which make up over 48% of the state’s population. He was elected as an MLA from the Ujjain South constituency in last month’s elections.
Keen on effecting a generational change in all three states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – the BJP leadership sprang a surprise by picking Yadav, a three-time MLA, as the chief minister.
Chouhan, who had moved the resolution proposing Yadav’s name, was present at the swearing-in, along with BJP President JP Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Nitin Gadkari also attended the event.
Before the oath ceremony, Mr Yadav visited a temple in Bhopal. He also went to the state BJP office to pay respects to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, one of the founding members of the Jana Sangh, and BJP’s founding ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
A large number of Bharatiya Janata Party workers, especially from Yadav’s hometown Ujjain, were also present for the ceremony. “Madhya Pradesh will follow the footsteps just in the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the country. I come from the land of King Vikramaditya and I am committed to the progress of the state and fulfil the aspirations of crores of citizens of Madhya Pradesh,” he told a news agency.
On his priorities, Mr Yadav said, “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.”
