Chouhan: ‘Not leaving MP’, emotional Shivraj tells teary-eyed ‘ladli behnas’ during visit to former Lok Sabha seat | India News

NEW DELHI: After serving the longest term as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan received an emotional farewell from his female supporters on Thursday.
In a video that went viral shared by news agency ANI, women supporters were seen hugging and crying during Shivraj’s visit to his former Lok Sabha constituency Vidisha.
Addressing him as ‘Bhaiyya’ (brother) and ‘Mama’ (maternal uncle), women and girls expressed their desire for his return as the chief minister.Overwhelmed, the CM couldn’t hold back his tears and reassured them that he had no plans to leave Madhya Pradesh.
In the November 17 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a resounding victory, claiming 163 out of the total 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Subsequently, the party appointed Mohan Yadav, a three-time MLA from Ujjain, as the new chief minister of the state. Chouhan, a dominant political figure in Madhya Pradesh for nearly two decades, resigned from his position on December 11 after Yadav was chosen as his successor, marking the end of an era.

Chouhan himself achieved a remarkable victory in this year’s assembly elections, winning by a record margin of over one lakh votes from Budhni in the Sehore district.
The 64-year-old Chouhan shifted the political tide in BJP’s favour in Madhya Pradesh by introducing various transformative scheme like ‘Ladli Behna.’ Launched in March of that year, the Ladli Behna scheme provided eligible women with Rs 1,250 in monthly financial assistance, with promises of gradual increases to Rs 3,000. The scheme covered 1.31 crore women out of the 2.72 crore women voters in the state.

On March 17 2022 , Chouhan achieved the distinction of being the longest-serving BJP chief minister, surpassing the record previously held by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh. Throughout his nearly 18-year-long tenure as CM, with a brief interruption of 15 months of Congress rule (December 2018-March 2020), Chouhan transformed from a shy, simple, and vulnerable politician into a strong leader with huge public appeal.
In his tenure, Chouhan introduced several programs, including ‘Ladli Laxmi Yojna,’ ‘Mukhya Mantri Kanyadan Yojna,’ ‘Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojana,’ and the bicycle scheme for school children, were emulated by some other states.