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Sailing on a carefully cultivated image of a family man coupled with simplicity, son of a farmer Shivraj Singh Chouhan achieved a hat-trick for the BJP, a feat no other party stalwart ever accomplished in Madhya Pradesh.
54-year-old Chouhan, who is 'Mama' (maternal uncle) to a large number of girls and "paon-paon wale Bhaiya" (man always on the move) to his followers, decimated Congress for the third time in a row reducing its tally to 58 from 71 in 2008.
The Chief Minister who prefers to maintain a low-profile despite his huge popularity as a secular leader and whom his party fondly describes as "Jan Nayak" (people's leader) is always cautious on comparison with his Gujarat counterpart and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Born on March 5, 1959 in a farmer's family of Prem Singh Chouhan and Sundar Bai Chouhan at Jait village in Sehore district, his leadership skills first came to fore when he was elected as the President of Model Higher Secondary School Student's Union in 1975.
He participated in underground movement against Emergency and was imprisoned in 1976-77 and on several other occasions for various political agitations and public causes.
A volunteer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since 1977, Chouhan is a gold medalist in Masters of Philosophy from Barkatulla University, Bhopal.
Chouhan had replaced Babulal Gaur as Chief Minister on November 29, 2005, who had occupied the seat after the fiery sanyasin-politician Uma Bharti resigned in 2004, and has remained in the saddle since them.
But even before that Chouhan had represented the saffron stronghold Vidisha Parliamentary seat five times. He had also served as General Secretary of the BJP and state president of party's Madhya Pradesh unit.
Chouhan's spouse Sadhana Singh, though not active in political life, is said to be the persona behind Chouhan's many decisions. Married in 1992, Chouhan has two sons.
