File photo of Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who led BJP to its third straight victory in the Madhya Pradesh assembly election, was today unanimously elected leader of BJP's legislature wing, paving the way for him to take over as the Chief Minister for a fresh term.
The newly-elected BJP MLAs chose Mr Chouhan as their leader at a meeting in the party office in Bhopal.
Senior legislator and former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur proposed Mr Chouhan's name and it was seconded by Narottam Mishra, Ranjana Baghel, Lalsingh Arya and Divyaraj Singh.
Mr Chouhan (54) will take oath as Chief Minister for the third time in a row tomorrow.
After eliciting the views of the 165 MLAs, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj formally declared Mr Chouhan as the chief of the party's legislature wing.
Ms Swaraj she and another BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy were deputed as observers for the meeting by the party's central leadership.
Besides them, BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) Ramlal, General Secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Anant Kumar, former Chief Minister Kailash Joshi, National Vice-President Prabhat Jha and State unit President Narendra Singh Tomar were present on the occasion.
Mr Chouhan will take oath at a function at Jamboori Maidan in the presence of top BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi.
Ms Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, BJP Chief Ministers Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje Scindia and Manohar Parrikar will also attend the swearing-in ceremony.