The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday declared Mohan Yadav as its choice as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. A relatively unknown face, Yadav hails from Ujjain and has served as an MLA from Ujjain Dakshin for three terms. Yadav, a surprise pick given his low profile, has risen through the ranks in his career spanning over four decades.

Yadav was first elected as an MLA from the Ujjain Dakshin seat in 2013. He went on to win the seat again in 2018 and in the recently-concluded Assembly elections as well. He holds a B.Sc degree, an L.Lb, an MA (political science), an MBA and a Ph.D. He is married to Seema Yadav. He has two sons and a daughter.

In 2020, he was appointed as the Minister of Higher Education in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led cabinet and will now take charge as the Chief Minister. His official profile lists lawyer, business and agriculture as his profession.

Born on March 25, 1965, Mohan Yadav is a worker who has worked through the ranks within the party and in politics. At the age of 17, Yadav was elected as the joint secretary at the Ujjain-based Madhav Science College in 1982 and later as the secretary in 1984 as an ABVP worker.

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In the same year, he was appointed as the Nagar Mantri of the ABVP and the town chief of the ABVP in 1986. He ascended through several positions within the ABVP and the RSS between 1989 and the early 2000s. It was during this period that he became an active member of the BJP.

Between 2004-2010, Yadav served in various capacities at the district and state levels within the party organisation as well as in administrative capacities in the state. The responsibilities handled by him include as chairman of the Ujjain Development Authority and as the district head of the Bharat Scouts and Guides in the rank of a minister of state.

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Between 2011 and 2013, he served as the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation in Bhopal in the rank of a Cabinet minister. Between 2013 and 2016, Yadav served as the coordinator of the BJP’s cultural wing and in 2020, he was administered oath as a minister in the Chouhan Cabinet where he was assigned the Higher Education portfolio.

Recently, Mohan Yadav sparked a controversy when he said that Mughals, including Akbar and Babur, cannot be called “great” as they belonged to a family of invaders, not India. Yadav said only those who laid their lives to protect India and its culture should be called greats. “Abkar (who was accorded the epithet “the Great”) belonged to a family of invaders and he did not belong to India. Hence, Babur and Akbar could not be great. The Mughals could not be great. Great are those who sacrificed their lives to protect their culture from them (Mughals) and become a source of inspiration,” Yadav was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

He was addressing a public meeting in the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency in Gonda district which was organised by party MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as a part of the BJP’s ‘Maha Sampark Abhiyan’ — launched to mark the completion of nine years of Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre in June this year. Yadav was chief guest at the rally.