What’s next for Mama Shivraj Chouhan, BJP’s longest serving CM?

BHOPAL: After 16.5 years as Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan is back where he started — as Lok Sabha MP of Vidisha.
After yet another thumping victory on the seat he won five times earlier, what does the future hold for BJP’s longest serving CM? What plans do the party top brass have for Mama?
In the 2023 assembly election, when BJP won 163 seats in an emphatic victory, there was intense speculation over whether the BJP leadership would give Chouhan a fifth term as CM.No one had campaigned harder.
But BJP did not. Mohan Yadav, a minister in the Chouhan cabinet for three years, was propelled to the top job, and the four-term CM was reduced to an MLA.
As Yadav was sworn in, Chouhan called a press meet and said, “I want to say humbly that I’d rather die than go (to New Delhi) and ask for something for myself. This is not what I do.” Three weeks later, on Jan 3, Chouhan said at a public meeting in his Budhni assembly constituency, “Sometimes you wait for raj tilak (coronation) but get vanvas (exile) instead.”
Chouhan’s angst was public. But BJP dragged on the uncertainty on his political future. It was only in the final list of candidates on March 2 that BJP declared Chouhan as the Vidisha candidate. That he would win wasn’t in doubt. Mama has returned to Parliament. But what role will BJP offer its longest serving CM?
PM Narendra Modi had given a hint on April 25, on the eve of second phase of voting. “On May 7, there is an election in Vidisha where my brother Shivraj ji is the candidate… Shivraj Singh Chouhan and I used to work together in the organisation. He was chief minister and I was chief minister, we used to work together. He went to Parliament when I was general secretary. And now again I want to take him with me,” the PM said.
Chouhan’s reluctance to go to Delhi is well known. Compared to Chouhan, many of the party’s top leaders lag in experience. Even BJP national president JP Nadda was once state minister, once Union minister and thrice Rajya Sabha MP.
Chouhan, meanwhile, is a six-time MP from the seat Atal Bihari Vajpayee once represented, was CM for 16.5 years, a former party state president and ex-national president of BJYM.
Chouhan’s success has been on account of his flagship schemes, especially for the girl child and women — Ladli Behna Yojana, which turned the 2023 election around, the hugely popular Ladli Laxmi Yojana, which was implemented on April 1, 2006, Mukhya Mantri Kanya Vivaah Yojana, Gaon Ki Beti Yojana and Janani Suraksha Yojana.
PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have lauded Chouhan for transforming MP from a BIMARU state to a rapidly growing economy. What can BJP offer a stalwart of such experience and following? A Union ministry berth may not be enough.