Journalism of Courage
Rajendra Shukla is Madhya Pradesh's deputy CM along with Jagdish Devda. Shukla is a five-time MLA from Rewa and has emerged a strong Brahmin face of the BJP in the Vindhya Pradesh region, once considered a stronghold of the Congress. The BJP won 25 of the 30 seats of the region in the recently-concluded polls.
Shukla (59), born in Rewa, has an engineering background. He began his political career in student politics and was elected president of the student union at the Government Engineering College in 1986.
He contested his first Assembly election in 1998 and lost to Independent candidate Pushpraj Singh by a narrow margin of just over 1,000 votes. Shukla has remained undefeated since.
Shukla’s rise in Madhya Pradesh politics was made challenging due to his power tussle with party colleague Abhay Mishra, who quit the BJP, contested as a Congress candidate and lost to Shukla.
Known to be soft-spoken, Shukla earned the goodwill of people due to the development works he undertook in Rewa over the past two decades. He is credited with bringing the airport and India’s largest solar project to the constituency while he was the energy minister in Chouhan’s Cabinet.
Shukla has handled a diverse range of portfolios including public health engineering, industry, and Energy among others.
