New Delhi:
Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s defeat in recently concluded Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, outgoing chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday changed his Twitter bio from "the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh" to "the common man of Madhya Pradesh". Chouhan was appointed as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister in 2005 and has been ruling the state for the last 15 years.
On Wednesday, while stepping down from the post of chief minister, Chouhan took sole responsibility for BJP's ouster from power in the heartland state. Addressing the media at the BJP office in Bhopal, the former chief minister said, "If we failed to compile the necessary numbers despite all the hard work, the Centre and state government's various welfare schemes, I deem myself responsible".
On rumours of he joining the Union Cabinet ahead of crucial Lok Sabha elections 2019, Chouhan said that he is emotionally attached with the people of his state and therefore will never leave them.
Read | Shivraj Singh Chouhan resigns as CM, says will provide constructive criticism as Opposition
Taking to Twitter an emotional Shivraj further promised to help the people of the state like previous years and called them his "God". "Madhya Pradesh is my temple and the masses are my God. The doors of my house are always open to every citizen of the state and they can come to me without any hesitation. I'll be helping them as usual," he wrote on Twitter.
In a nerve-wrecking see-saw battle with the Congress, the BJP on Tuesday managed to get 109 seats in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly. With wins in 114 seats, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the state and staked claims to form the government with the help of independents, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.
However, the BJP polled 41 per cent of the votes, more than Congress' 40.9 per cent vote share. Shivraj Singh Chouhan also won from his traditional Budhni constituency with a healthy majority.
Read | Rahul Gandhi picks Kamal Nath as new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh
State Congress chief Kamal Nath has been announced the next chief minister of the state on December 13. He is scheduled to take oath on Monday, December 17.
