BJP MLA Mohan Yadav after being elected as the leader of the state legislative party, in Bhopal, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: In June 1992, when India leased the Tin Bigha corridor in the Indo-Bangladesh corridor so that Bangladesh could access the Dahagram–Angarpota Bangladeshi enclaves within Indian Territory, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad protested against the move. Spearheading the protest was a young firebrand leader named Mohan Singh Yadav, the ABVP’s then rashtriya mantri (national secretary) from Bhopal who had close ties to the RSS.
Yadav, several BJP leaders said, had no qualms leading protests during his days as a student activist. A senior RSS leader, who did not wish to be named, said that his consistency made him popular within the ranks. “He has consistently performed, and his work on the Narmada front in Ujjain made him popular, and brought to the fore his leadership capabilities among the party’s bigwigs. He has been fearless and would front protests without complaints,” a senior RSS functionary said. Yadav eventually rose to become the mayor of Ujjain.
Considered close to significant leaders within the BJP and the RSS equally, Yadav seemed like the best choice to find a consensus among several factions within the BJP. Yadav’s mentor in the RSS has been Suresh Soni, and within the BJP, he enjoys close relations with both BJP president J P Nadda as well as former MP CM Shivraj Chouhan. It was Chouhan who proposed his name in the legislature party meeting at Bhopal on Monday.
BJP’s central observer to MP and OBC Morcha president Dr K Laxman said that Yadav is experienced and educated. “He is a new face, is ideologically committed with a background with the ABVP and is a grassroot-level worker,” Dr Laxman said.
Yadav was first elected as an MLA in 2013, when he won from the Ujjain South seat, and between 2011 and 2013, he served as the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC). In July 2020, he was made the education minister, and among his prominent steps was to announce that the Hindu epic ‘Ramcharitmanas’ will be available as an optional subject in colleges. Another of his prominent decisions was to rename the position of vice-chancellor state universities from ‘Kulpati’ to ‘Kulguru’. Born and brought up in Ujjain, he holds a doctoral degree from the region’s Vikram University apart from a bachelor's degree in law.
Yadav, however, has come under attack from the Congress during the election campaign for corruption in the construction of the Mahakal Lok corridor in Ujjain. Despite that, he defeated his Congress rival, Chetan Yadav, with a margin of more than 12,000 votes.
Yadav’s elevation as the chief minister has given MP its second OBC chief minister after Babulal Gaur. With him as the CM, the BJP will have several Yadav faces in significant positions – OBC faces Bhupendra Yadav, Nityanad Rai, Rao Indrajit Singh, and Annapurna Devi are union ministers, while Sudha Yadav is part of the party’s parliamentary board while Hansraj Ahir heads the OBC Commission.