In a major twist, Madhya Pradesh incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said neither he was the Chief Minister contender earlier, nor he is now.
"Neither was I CM contender earlier nor now. I am just a party worker and whatever post or duty the party will give I will fulfil that," Chouhan said.
“I consider myself fortunate that I have got an opportunity to work with a leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said.
The BJP swept the elections in the central state by winning 163 seats of the state's 230 seats, under the leadership of Chouhan, while Congress won just 66 seats.
The saffron party has been ruling the city since 2003, barring a brief 15-month period in 2018 when Congress leader Kamal Nath formed the government.
In the run-up to the polls, the BJP did not project Chouhan as the chief ministerial face and projected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and popularity.
Earlier, Chouhan told NDTV that he is merely a party worker."None of us make any decisions about ourselves. We are part of a bigger mission. We are workers. We do whatever the party decides."
Chouhan is the longest-serving chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. He first took the oath for the chief minister in 2005.
Chouhan won his Budhni seat for the sixth time by a record margin of 1,04,974 votes defeating Congress candidate Vikram Mastal Sharma.
Earlier it was speculated that Chouhan might not get the top post with the presence of three Union ministers this time. But the party high command may stick to Chouhan after the party's stupendous performance.
The other names in the fray are: Union ministers Prahlad Singh Patel and Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Scindia played a major role in bringing down the Congress government in 2020, when he left the grand-old party and joined the BJP. He took away some of the fellow MPs and later got elected in the bye-elections.
Two more names doing rounds are state party chief and first-time MP VD Sharma and fifth-time MLA and a minister in the outgoing state cabinet, Rajendra Shukla. Both are prominent Brahmin leaders.
Also read: Revanth Reddy to be next CM of Telangana, might take oath on Dec 6: Sources