Mohan Yadav (born 25 March 1965) is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh since 13 December 2023. A three-time legislator from the temple city of Ujjain and a former minister of higher education, he was the party’s surprise choice to succeed Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had led the state for most of the previous eighteen years.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Dr Mohan Yadav |
| Born | 25 March 1965, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh |
| Age | 61 |
| State | Madhya Pradesh |
| Education | Vikram University, Ujjain (B.Sc., LL.B., M.A., MBA, Ph.D.) |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (since December 2023); Minister of Higher Education (2020–2023) |
| Constituency | Ujjain South |
| Spouse | Seema Yadav |
| Children | 3 |
Early Life
He was born in Ujjain, one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus and the seat of the Mahakaleshwar temple, into a family of modest means of the Yadav community, counted among the Other Backward Classes. His father worked in a mill and later ran a small business.
Education
He studied at Madhav Science College and Vikram University in Ujjain, where he took degrees in science, law, political science and business administration, followed by a doctorate.
Career
Student politics
He joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student organisation linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and was elected joint secretary and then president of his college students’ union in the early 1980s. He rose through the Parishad’s state and national bodies and later worked in the Sangh and the BJP’s youth wing.
Party and public bodies
He headed the Ujjain Development Authority from 2004 to 2010 and the state tourism development corporation after that, and was associated with wrestling and other sports bodies.
Legislator and minister
He was elected from Ujjain South in 2013 and re-elected in 2018 and 2023. When the BJP returned to office in March 2020 he became Minister of Higher Education under Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He oversaw the introduction of the National Education Policy in the state’s colleges and the inclusion of material from Hindu epics in an optional course.
Chief Minister
The BJP won 163 of the 230 seats in November 2023. At the meeting of its legislators on 11 December, his name, which few had expected, was proposed by Chouhan himself. He was sworn in two days later with two deputies.
- **Religious towns:** restrictions on loudspeakers at places of worship and on the open sale of meat were among his first orders, and in 2025 liquor shops were closed in a number of religious towns, including Ujjain
- **Ladli Behna:** continuation of the monthly payment to women begun by his predecessor
- **Rivers:** agreements with neighbouring states and the Centre on the Ken–Betwa and Parbati–Kalisindh–Chambal river-linking projects
- **Investment:** regional industry conclaves and a global investors’ summit at Bhopal in 2025
- **Simhastha:** preparations for the Kumbh fair due at Ujjain in 2028
Critics have pointed to the state’s rising debt and to cases of demolition of the houses of people accused of crimes.
Personal Life
He is married to Seema Yadav; they have two sons and a daughter. He practises sword-play and stick-fighting, traditional martial exercises, which he has demonstrated in public. He is a devotee of Mahakal.
Among his predecessors in the office were Digvijaya Singh, Uma Bharti and Kamal Nath.
Featured image: Mohan Yadav, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, in May 2025. Photo by the Prime Minister’s Office, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
