Bhopal: Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday returned as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the fourth time, over 15 months after his government was voted out of power.
The 61-year-old BJP leader was sworn in by Governor Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhawan here at 9 pm.
Chouhan was earlier in the day elected leader of the state BJP legislature party at its meeting here.
Due to the coronavirus situation, no BJP leader from Delhi travelled to Bhopal for the legislature party meeting, though the party's central observers Arun Singh and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe participated through video conferencing.
Popularly known among his followers as 'Mamaji', Chouhan was sworn in chief minister of Madhya Pradesh thrice earlier - in 2005, after Uma Bharti stepped down over a riots case, and for later two full terms in 2008 and 2013.
He stepped down after the Congress won a narrow majority in the December 2018 Assembly elections, after which the Kamal Nath government came to power.
Stumped by the rebellion of party colleague Jyodiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP and resignations of 22 Congress MLAs, Nath resigned as chief minister last week, paving way for Chouhan's return.
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.
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