With years of experience, Shivraj Chouhan makes Cabinet debut as Agriculture Minister

Bhopal, June 10: Senior BJP leader and four-time former Chief of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was on Monday allocated the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA 3.0 Cabinet. 

Chouhan was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister for the first time on Sunday.

Senior BJP leader Narendra Singh Tomar from Madhya Pradesh was the Union Agriculture Minister until he resigned from the chair after winning the Assembly elections held in November last year from Dimani.

Presently, Tommar is the Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Chouhan made his electoral debut in 1990 when he won the Assembly elections from his hometown Budhni in Sehor district.

One year later, Chouhan contested the bypoll after former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee vacated the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat, and defeated Congress' Pratap Bhanu Sharma by over 1 lakh votes.

He went on to retain the seat for four consecutive times, from 1996 to 2004.

Returning to state elections, Chouhan won the Assembly polls from Budhni in 2006, 2008, 2013, 2018, and 2023.

In 2005, Chouhan replaced veteran BJP leader Babulal Gaur as the Chief Minister and remained in the chair till 2018 as the BJP won two Assembly elections - 2008 and 2013 - under his leadership, before losing to the Congress in 2018.

But the Congress government didn't last long as a faction led by Jyotiraditya Scindia and his 22 loyalist MLAs shifted to the BJP in March 2020, paving the way for Chouhan's return as the CM for a fourth term.

The BJP swept the Assembly elections in 2023 despite high incumbency, but Chouhan was replaced with Mohan Yadav as the new Chief Minister last year on December 3.