M S Chouhan [updated] Now

Chouhan’s tenure (2005–2023) was a study in contradictions. He was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) man to the core, a Hindu nationalist with a conservative social agenda. Yet, he governed with a populist, almost socialist fervor. His government launched the Ladli Laxmi Yojana (a scheme for girl child welfare) and the Ladli Behna Yojana (financial aid for women), creating a safety net that cut across caste lines.

Born into a farmer’s family in Jait, a small village in Sehore district, Chouhan never shed his rural roots. Unlike the dynasts and the technocrats, he wore his agrarian identity like a badge of honor. When he spoke of wheat procurement, loan waivers, or the price of soybeans, it wasn’t policy jargon—it was a family conversation. m s chouhan

But politics is a cruel stage. In December 2023, despite leading the BJP to a landslide victory in the assembly elections, Chouhan was not chosen for a fifth term. The party, pivoting toward a younger, less localized leadership, replaced him with Mohan Yadav. His government launched the Ladli Laxmi Yojana (a

Shivraj Singh Chouhan was never a rockstar politician. He was not a fiery orator like Modi or a street-fighter like Yogi. He was the man you’d find stepping out of his car in the middle of a dusty road to hug a weeping farmer. He was the Chief Minister who held Jan-Darshan (public audience) for years, listening to grievances until the evening lamp was lit. When he spoke of wheat procurement, loan waivers,

For a decade and a half, he defied the anti-incumbency wave that toppled giants like Congress’s Digvijaya Singh and even his own BJP colleagues in other states. He won in 2003, 2008, 2013, and then again in 2020 after a brief, tumultuous Congress interregnum.