Bhopal, Dec 11 (IANS): The Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP made Mohan Yadav the next Chief Minister of the state on Monday.

The decision that came at the party's legislative meeting was a major surprise as many heavyweights including Narendra Singh Tomar, National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and many more were in the race to replace outgoing CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Mohan Yadav (58) won the Assembly election from Ujjain South constituency. He won the first Assembly election in 2013 and won three consecutive elections including 2023.

In 2020 when the BJP came back to power after toppling the Kamal Nath-led Congress Government, Yadav was made Higher Education Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Yadav started his political career with the ABVP, the student wing of the saffron party in Ujjain University. In 1988, he was made the state president of the ABVP.

He is considered a low-profile BJP leader with high-level contacts. Until a few hours ago, he was not even in the list of probable candidates for the CM’s post.

With this, the tenure of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who ruled Madhya Pradesh for around two decades and established himself as the strongest leader in MP, came to an end on Monday.