New Delhi: BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan was sworn in as Madhya Pradesh chief minister for the fourth time on Monday, after the Kamal Nath government was reduced to a minority following the rebellion of 22 Congress MLAs.

Soon after he was sworn in, Chouhan took to Twitter to thank the 22 MLAs who provided support to his government. " I thank all those 22 MLAs who joined BJP. I assure them that we will live up to their expectations and will never let their trust break," he wrote in Hindi.

He also stated that his first priority will be to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Chouhan, who lost the assembly polls to Congress and allies last year, was elected state BJP Legislature Party leader here in the evening.

The legislature party members - wearing masks due to coronavirus threat and sitting two chairs away from each other - unanimously elected Chouhan as their leader. The BJP's central observers Arun Singh and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe joined the meeting via video conferencing from Delhi.


Senior BJP MLA and ex-leader of opposition Gopal Bhargava proposed the name of Chouhan as legislature party leader, which was endorsed by Vijay Shah, Meena Singh, Paras Jain and other MLAs.

After this process, Arun Singh announced Chouhan's name as leader of BJP legislature party. Chouhan, who thanked the MLAs, accused the outgoing Congress dispensation of "ruining" the state, and said he would change the way of running the government from now.

Calling fighting the coronavirus as his top priority, Chouhan said, "We will defeat this disease."

"We will improve our governance....the shortcomings so far will be removed," he said.

He said he will go to Mantralaya (state secretariat) after taking oath and sit till late night to review measures taken to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Nath government fell after 22 Congress MLAs quit the Assembly and later joined the BJP, following the steps of rebel party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Kamal Nath resigned on March 20 ahead of the floor test in the Assembly. He said that he worked for the development of the state and BJP did not want action against the Mafias so they conspired against the government. The outgoing Chief Minister had alleged, "I got the mandate for 5 years but got 15 months. BJP ruled for 15 years and from day one, it was a conspiracy of the BJP to destabilise the government."

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