Mohan Yadav will take oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh at a ceremony in capital Bhopal on December 13.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J. P. Nadda, Chief Ministers of various BJP-ruled States, Union Ministers and other senior leaders will attend the swearing-in ceremony scheduled to take place at noon.
The new government will also have two deputy CMs — Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda. Former Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will be the Assembly Speaker.
An official close to Mr. Yadav, however, told The Hindu that it was not yet clear if Mr. Shukla, Mr. Devda and Mr. Tomar will also take oath on December 13. “There is a late-night meeting scheduled between Mr. Yadav and senior party leaders like State BJP president (V.D. Sharma) to discuss who all will take oath,” he said.
Mr. Yadav, 58, a three-term MLA from Ujjain-Dakshin (South) Assembly constituency emerged as the BJP Legislature Party leader when his name was proposed by the outgoing CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, at the meeting of party MLAs here on December 11. The decision took many by surprise who had been speculating on various names, including senior State BJP leaders like Prahlad Singh Patel, Mr. Tomar, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mr. Chouhan himself.
Considered close to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), Mr. Yadav hails from the State’s influential OBC community. His elevation just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election holds prominence, especially at a time when the Congress and its allies in the INDIA bloc have been aggressively demanding a caste-based census at the national level.
In Madhya Pradesh, the last four CMs from the BJP – Mr. Yadav, Mr. Chouhan, Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur – have been from the OBC community, which makes around half the State’s population.
