Introducing Madhya Pradesh's Longest Serving Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Image:Twitter/ChouhanShivraj)

As Madhya Pradesh is moving to the ballot booth on November 17, spectating a rugged contest between the government-held BJP and prime rival Congress, it is fundamental to be aware of the sitting and longest-serving Chief Minister of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The BJP adept Mr Chouhan is a senior leader of the party who also serves in its National Vice President position.

Being a steadfast labourer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and four-time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Chauhan is enthralled with robust power within the ruling political party in India, under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and also outside the sphere.

Sivaraj Singh Chauhan was born on March 5, 1959, to Prem Singh Chauhan and Sunderbai Chauhan in Sehore, Madhya Pradesh. He secured a post-graduate degree in Philosophy from the Barkatullah University in Bhopal with a gold medal. Mr Chauhan was sent to prison after opposing the Emergency announced by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the time period of 1976-77.  He is also an active volunteer of the RSS since 1977.

Mr Chauhan was the Organisation minister of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad from 1977 to 1978, and also served as the joint minister of Madhya Pradesh of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad from 1975 to 1980, and became the State General Secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1980–1982.

He was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1990 from his own Budhni constituency. In 1991, he became an MP (Member of Parliament) from Vidisha constituency. He got married to Sadhna Singh in 1992, and it was in the same year Mr Chauhan appointed as the General Secretary to BJP, which he served until 1994. He was also a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1992 to 1996, Labor and Welfare Committee from 1993 to 1996, and Hindi Advisory Committee from 1994 to 1996.

Mr Chauhan was re-elected as an MP in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2004 from the Vidisha constituency and appointed as the state president of BJP in 2005. In the same year, he became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for the first time. He has reserved the office since then, barring an 18-month period between 2018 and 2020 when the Congress was in power. In the 2018 election, INC’s Kamal Nath was chosen as the state Chief Minister. But in 2020, Madhya Pradesh witnessed a political overturn as Mr Chouhan took oath as the Chief Minister of the state once again (for the fourth time) on March 23 after 22 Congress MLAs resigned along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, resulting in the collapse of the Kamal Nath government.