BJP announced Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda as the new Deputy Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh on Monday, soon after declaring Mohan Yadav as Chief Minister of the state.

The state went to polls for its 230 seats on November 17 with nearly 78 per cent voter turnout.

Rajendra Shukla profile

Rajendra Shukla won the Rewa Assembly constituency for the fifth time in a row in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh election by defeating Congress candidate Rajendra Sharma with a margin of 21,339 votes.

He made his way into politics by contesting in the 1998 Assembly election, which he lost to Congress candidate Pushparaj Singh by a close margin of 1,394 votes.

Rajendra Shukla won his first Assembly election in 2003 from Rewa by defeating Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Lekhan Singh Patel with a margin of 56,208 votes.

Shukla again retained his Rewa seat in 2008 by defeating Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Dr Abdul Mujib Khan Advocate with a margin of 26,110 votes.

Shukla won the 2013 Assembly Elections from Rewa by defeating Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Krishna Kumar Gupta (KK) with a margin of 37,546 votes.

In the 2018 Assembly Elections, Shukla again won from Rewa by defeating Congress candidate Abhay Mishra with a margin of 18,089 votes.

Shukla, a Brahmin leader and five-time MLA from Rewa in the Vindh region, was inducted in Shivraj Singh Chouhan months ahead of the Assembly polls. Rajendra Shukla was given the Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Public Relations departments.

Rajendra Shukla was also the Minister of Mineral Resources, Commerce, Industry and Employment, Overseas Indian in the third Shivraj Singh Chouhan Ministry in Madhya Pradesh from 2013 to 2018.