Mohan Yadav is next Madhya Pradesh CM

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday picked three-time lawmaker Mohan Yadav as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, implementing a generational shift in the heartland state that delivered the party the biggest victory in the recently concluded round of assembly elections.

- Shruti Tomar

Yadav, the 58-year-old former state education minister, replaces Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who ruled the state for 16 of the last 18 years over four terms. The BJP legislative party also picked two deputy CMS, two-time lawmaker and outgoing finance minister Jagdish Devda, and outgoing public relations minister Rajendra Shukla.

Former Union agriculture minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, who won the polls from Dimni in Morena district and resigned from the Lok Sabha last week, was named as the new speaker of the legislative assembly.

"I am a small worker of the party. Many thanks to the state leadership and central leadership of the party for their love and support. I will fulfil my responsibility completely," said Yadav, the legislator from Ujjain South.

This is the first time since 1967 that Madhya Pradesh will have a deputy CM, and the first time that a BJP government has made an appointment to the position in the state. The announcement is the second for the three states that the BJP won in the recent clutch of assembly elections and came a day after the party named tribal leader Vishu Deo Sai as the CM for Chhattisgarh. Only the decision for Rajasthan is pending and is likely to come on Tuesday.