Kailash Joshi was the first BJP leader to occupy the chief minister’s gaddi in 1977. But he could continue in the office only for six months. He was forced to resign by hard-core RSS leaders. He was succeeded by V.K. Sakhlecha who also resigned following party's defeat in 1980 Lok Sabha election. He was succeeded by S.L. Patwa who too had to resign after the president's rule was imposed on the state. The BJP on its own won majority seats in the 1990 Assembly elections and Patwa was named as the chief minister. He too had to resign after president rule was imposed on Madhya Pradesh following the demolition of Babri Masjid.

Again in 2003 the BJP secured majority in the Vidhan Sabha elections. Party won the majority under the leadership of Uma Barati. She too could complete less than a year in the office. She was succeeded by Babulal Gaur. But he too completed hardly one year. Both Uma Bharati and Babulal Gaur was the victim of the conspiracy hatched by their detractors in the party. Then Shivraj Singh Chauhan, almost a dark horse then, was sworn in as chief minister on November 29, 2005. He was a member of Lok Sabha when LK Advani chose him for the top job in the state. He continued to be a blue eyed boy of Advani who used to compare him with Modi to describe him as better chief minister. He would laud Chauhan for his efforts to pull out MP from the category of 'Bimaru States'.

From that day till November 2015 Chauhan ruled the state without any challenge from his party men. There is hardly any vocal opponent in the party. The party continued to be faction-free largely because of the patronage of the RSS. Among his major achievements are pucca roads and uninterrupted supply of electricity. Uma Bharati during her aggressive election campaign used to draw people's attention to Digvijay Singh's massive failure on the road and power front.

Many programmes were held to mark his ten-year rule. Most of the newspapers brought out supplement to mark the occasion. But almost all of them competed with each other in conferring praise bordering in sycophancy. But political leaders should be judged both by their achievements and failures. This job should normally be done by media.

When Chauhan was sworn in as the chief minister in November 2005, he had not been a minister for a day. There were not many who could have betted that not only would he last in the chair longer than any of his predecessors but he would gain as much popularity as he has done.

He had begun his term; Chauhan had the feisty Uma Bharati breathing down his neck. The sexy sanyasin of yore believed that the chief minister’s chair was hers by right - as she had led the party to victory in the 2003 assembly polls - and that Chauhan was a usurper.

But the challenge from Uma faded away slowly and ended after the 2008 Assembly polls, in which her party faced a severe drubbing.

Chauhan managed to ensure that Bharati was not given any political role in the state after her re-entry into the BJP.

Even his detractors agree that Chauhan has his finger on the pulse of the people. He knows the art of building rapport with a crowd. A maverick, some would say; a people's darling, others may counter.

Just see the way he did damage control after an illegally-stored cache of gelatine sticks in the godown of a BJP leader in Petlawad of Jhabua district exploded, killing 89 persons. Chauhan flew into the town, only to be greeted by a fuming crowd that aggressively heckled him. However, not the one to give up, he sat on the ground and commenced, what, if you like so, can be dubbed as histrionics. He declared that he had not slept the last night and that he was as grieved by the accident as the families of the victims. Within no time, he managed to defuse the anger of the people

Chauhan is also free from another bane of Indian politicos--sex scandals.

Chauhan has also been deftly doing the tight-rope walking that has endeared him to the RSS while at the same time protected him from being branded as a hard-core communal leader. He has performed the balancing act with remarkable finesses.

One more quality that has stood him in good stead is his habit of not putting his foot into his mouth. He carefully refrains from making statements that may land him into trouble.

Innovative schemes like Ladli Laxmi and Kanyadaan, direct interaction with the people through 'Panchayats', public welfare initiatives like free medicine and cycles-for-girls scheme have endeared him to the masses.

In personal interaction, Chauhan comes out as an affable, soft-spoken man not given to arrogance that power seems to infuse into the most humble of men.

One reason for his durability in office is the fact that unlike most Congress chief ministers of the state, he never faced any intra-party opposition. He was always the Lord of all he surveyed. He got persons of his choice appointed as state BJP chiefs, who went at great lengths to praise him sky-high.

There is little doubt that Chauhan seems to have a penchant for making announcements. Since he took over as Chief Minister, Chauhan, according to estimates, has made more than 8000 announcements so far - so much so that a senior leader of the ruling party itself had described the CM as 'Ghoshnaveer'. He was promptly sacked from the party post for his embarrassing frankness.

Despite the publicity blitzkrieg projecting Chauhan as the loving 'Mama' of the state's children, Madhya Pradesh continues to be the worst state to be born in. Every year, 19 lakh children are born in the state. Of them, 1.38 lakh are dead before their fifth birthday, 73,000 of them die within a year of their birth and 3,000 are stillborn.

National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3), conducted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, puts the number of malnourished children in MP at a whopping 60 lakh, which is over 60 per cent of its total children under five years of age. Out of these 60 lakh malnourished children, 13 lakh have Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and another 10 lakh have Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM).

It was at the inauguration of the state headquarters of the ABVP, build on a piece of land gifted by the government bang at the centre of Bhopal, that Chauhan urged the government employees to join the RSS, technically a non-political organisation but a partisan outfit for all practical purposes. At another public function, he announced with obvious pride that the government had done away with the ban on government employees joining the RSS because the “Sangh is the only organisation that genuinely believes in universal brotherhood and welfare of all”. A thunderous applause ensued.

Sometimes one's admirers put their hero in an embarrassing position. The other day Nandkumar Chauhan MP and president of the Madhya Pradesh BJP asserting that CM does not spare any corrupt person. Then he declared that Lokayukt of the state is running his anti corruption campaign under the instructions of the Chief Minister. Lokayukt is a judicial position. Reacting sharply KK Mishra Congress spokesman asserted that truth is out we used to say that the Lokayukt is conducting his affairs under the instruction of the chief minister. Nandkumar Chauhan confirms that our allegation was true. Responding sharply to the whole affairs Lokayukt came out with the statement that he functions as per the provisions of the Lokayukt act and not under anybody's instructions. (IPA Service)