Madhya Pradesh’s longest-serving chief minister and BJP stalwart Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to play an important role in national politics with Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling an election rally recently that he wanted to “take him to Delhi (Centre)”.

Chouhan, who was the chief minister from 2005 to 2023, is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from his stronghold Vidisha, an ancient city incidentally located on the Bhopal-Delhi train route.

The BJP candidate is up against Pratap Bhanu Sharma, a Congressman who won the seat in 1980 and 1984 on the back of the post-Emergency Indira Gandhi juggernaut and later, the sympathy wave caused by her death.

These were the only two occasions when the Congress won the seat since it was created in 1967.

Speaking at a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Harda on April 24, Modi praised Chouhan saying the two had served together in the party organisation and also as chief ministers.

When Shivraj went to Parliament, I was working together as general secretary of the party. Now I want to take him with me (to Delhi) once again,” Modi said at the rally.

Incidentally, Chouhan had reached Vidisha through a Delhi-bound train after the announcement of his candidature.

He led the BJP to a crushing victory in last year’s Assembly polls, though the party, in a surprise move, picked Mohan Yadav as his successor.