Chouhan completes 1 year in office

Bhopal, Nov 28 (UNI) After weathering a storm kicked up by Sadhvi Uma Bharti questioning the BJP high command's choice, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has a smooth sailing completing one year in office today.

Ms Bharti challenged Mr Chouhan's election as leader of the BJP legislature party leading to her expulsion from BJP and she later floated a new outfit Bhartiya Jan Shakti charging that the BJP had drifted away from its declared policies.

After resigning as a member of Lok Sabha, of which he was elected for five terms, Mr Chouhan won the Assembly byelection from Budhni and also ensured his party's victory in the recent byelections in Vidisha Lok Sabha and Malehra Assembly constituencies. Coincidently, Ms Bharti fielded her party's candidates at both places.

While charting out his own place in the state's politics and administration, Mr Chouhan replaced the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police and got his confidante cabinet colleague Narendra Singh Tomar appointed as state BJP President in place of Mr Satya Narayan Jatia.

Pushing up the development schemes started during the tenure of Ms Bharti and her successor Babulal Gaur, who were in office for short tenure forcing the BJP to go in for a third CM in less than two years, Mr Chouhan rushed through his own pet social agenda, particularly aimed at conducting marriage of poor girls at government expense.

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