8 Dec : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned to power for the second successive term decimating all charges of corruption against his government.Born on 6th March 1959 at village Jait in Sehore district, Chouhan had won the Lok Sabha polls five times from Vidisha and was also elected as the member of the State Assembly twice.
The 49-year-old began his electoral politics by winning Budhni assembly seat in 1990, but quit the seat on 23rd November 1991 to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha seat.Since then he has represented Vidisha where he is popularly known as panv-panv wale bhaiya (one who always toured the constituency on foot) till he was elected the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
Chouhan was elected MP from Vidisha in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.After becoming Madhya Pradesh CM on 29th November 2005, Chouhan entered the state assembly again from Budhni seat on 6th May 2006.
The poll results, meanwhile, didn’t do much to boost Bharatiya Janshakti Party president Uma Bharti’s confidence.Bharti, who had initially said that she would not contest the elections, later changed her mind and decided to enter the race from Tikamgarh.
However, she lost to Yadvendra Singh of the Congress with BJP’s Akhand Pratap Singh being relegated to the fourth place. The BJP candidate lost his security deposit.Chouhan credits BJP victory in MP to workers.
Distancing himself from comparisons with Gujarat CM Narendra Modi who fought anti-incumbency last year, Madhya Pradesh CM and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan credited the party’s victory to the organisation’s workers.
"This is the victory of 6.5 crore people of Madhya Pradesh and the hard work and sweat of lakhs of BJP workers. This is a victory of BJP, of its policies and the development and welfare work of the party," Chouhan said at a press conference at Bhopal on Monday.
Chouhan said there were many who felt an election could not be won on issues of development and people’s welfare but the party felt it should fight on this plank."People have proved that if development is done in a fair manner and efforts are made to improve the standard of living of the masses, then people bless you with love and affection," Chouhan said.
Chouhan described himself as an "ordinary worker" of the party. "I can never become so big to say that the party won because of me. I am happy that I was able to do the job assigned to me by the party," he said.The saffron party leader, who was the third chief minister hoisted by the BJP in the last five years, said there was no comparison between him and Modi.
"Narendra is Narendra. He has his own personality. Shivraj is Shivraj," he said.Praising the BJP state unit, he said it was an ideal organisation which had the right mix of mutual understanding, co-ordination, balance and team spirit.