MOHAN YADAV'S DEVELOPMENT PLAN MOVES AWAY FROM CHOUHAN'S POPULISM

Mohan Yadav is concentrating on bringing investments and jobs to Madhya Pradesh.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

When Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jagdish Devda rose to present the inaugural budget under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav in Bhopal on Wednesday, it was the first instance since November 2005—except for the July 2019 budget that was presented by a Congress led government—that the state financial plan was not devised under the directions of former Chief Minister and now union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Due to this, the inaugural budget of Yadav was being awaited with great anticipation, as it was expected to reveal the extent of Chouhan’s lingering influence over both Yadav and the state bureaucracy.

Political observers both in Bhopal and Delhi were looking at the budget to discern whether Yadav would assert his own distinct vision for the state or continue along the path laid down by his predecessor and hence it was not being viewed just as a financial document, but as a political statement that would reveal the true nature of the transition of power in Madhya Pradesh.

The budget speech and document, became more important since it was coming after Chouhan was appointed in the key position of Union Agriculture Minister and a recent speech by his son Kartikeya Singh Chouhan, a law graduate from University of Pennsylvania Law School and someone who is seen by those who are close to the family as the political successor of Chouhan, had gone viral.