BJP to announce Madhya Pradesh CM on Monday

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scheduled to hold its party meeting in the state capital of Bhopal on Monday, amid speculation surrounding the Chief Minister’s candidate in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP is expected to announce the state’s chief minister on the same day.

The three central observers that the party has designated will look after  the meeting, which is set to take place at the state BJP office here at approximately 4 p.m.

The three central observers were named by the BJP on Thursday. They are Aasha Lakda, the state’s national secretary, K Laxman, national president of OBC Morcha, and Manohar Lal Khattar, the chief minister of Haryana.

Remarkably, the party last sent central observers to the state in 2005, the year that former chief minister Babu Lal Gaur resigned from office. Following that, in November 2005, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took the oath of office for the first time in his capacity as the state’s top official.

Prior to Babu Lal Gaur becoming the state’s chief minister in 2004, the central observers had been named when Uma Bharti resigned from her position as chief minister.

Since then, the state has appointed no central observers. Chouhan was still the state’s chief minister and the BJP was still in control of the state during the 2008 and 2013 state assembly elections.

The Congress regained power in the 2018 assembly elections, with veteran leader Kamal Nath taking the oath of office as chief minister. However, in 2020, the state was rocked by political turmoil when former Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 loyalist MLAs joined the saffron camp.

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