Mohan Yadav has been chosen as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, more than two weeks after the ruling BJP routed rivals Congress to retain control of the heartland state. Mr Yadav, the Higher Education Minister in the outgoing government, was elected from the Ujjain Dakshin seat.

“I am a small party worker… I thank the party for this opportunity,” Mr Yadav said.

The BJP, in a bid to contain ambitions and soothe ruffled feathers ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, also named two deputy chief ministers – Jagdish Deora and Rajesh Shukla. Mr Deora was elected from Malhagarh by nearly 60,000 votes and Mr Shukla from Rewa by around 21,000 votes.

The appointments end suspense over the identity of two of three chief ministers for the states the BJP won on December 3. Vishnu Deo Sai was named Chhattisgarh Chief Minister on Sunday.

Now, of the five states that voted in November, only Rajasthan is without a Chief Minister; the Congress, which won Telangana, has installed Revanth Reddy in the top post and, in Mizoram, the fledgling Zoram People’s Movement claimed an impressive win and Lalduhoma is Chief Minister.

A three-time MLA from the Ujjain district, the appointment of Mohan Yadav, 58, has been widely seen as the end of the political road (at least in the state) for his predecessor, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Mr Chouhan is a four-time Chief Minister and arguably the BJP’s tallest leader in the state, but seemed to side-lined by his party in the run-up to the November 17 election. The party opted for a campaign based on “collective leadership” built around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face.

The strategy reaped dividends; the BJP won 163 of 230 seats and the Congress, which actually won the 2018 election but saw its government fall two years later, was left with just 66, down from 114.

The BJP’s win defied several exit polls’ predictions of a tight race with the Congress.

Ex-Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, one of three former cabinet members to contest last month’s election, has been made Assembly Speaker. There was speculation Mr Tomar, who led the ministry during protests against farm laws, could succeed Mr Chouhan to the top post.

The Union Cabinet has given the go-ahead to Home Minister Amit Shah to introduce the criminal law amendment bills, which are set to replace old pre-colonial criminal laws, people familiar with the matter said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office have disagreed with two suggestions made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Home Affairs as they would have far-reaching consequences and would have been seen as against the Supreme Court and its judgments, sources said.

One is on the offence of adultery, and the other is criminalising of homosexual sex.

The committee had recommended that the offence of adultery be retained in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023. The Supreme Court had, however, struck down this offence in 2018, saying it discriminated against women, perpetuated gender stereotypes, and diminished the dignity of women.

Another recommendation of the standing committee was to penalise non-consensual acts under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Even though the Supreme Court has struck down the criminalising of homosexual sex between consensual adults, they have asked for this provision to be retained in the new bill, saying no provision for non-consensual sexual offence against male, female, transgender and for bestiality has been made.

The Prime Minister, his office (PMO) and the cabinet have agreed with not accepting this recommendation, and so the Supreme Court judgment on Section 377 of the IPC has been removed.

On the offence of adultery, the Supreme Court had held that a wife was treated like the property of the husband by only penalising the man in disregard to the autonomy of the woman.

The parliamentary committee, however, is of the view that the institution of marriage is considered sacred and needs to be safeguarded in Indian society and made gender-neutral. The PMO, Prime Minister and the cabinet have agreed with the decision not to accept this recommendation, sources said.

There have been some changes to the definition of organised crime and terrorism to make it in line with the 21st century.

All the three bills are expected to be taken up for consideration and passing on Wednesday and early next week in the Rajya Sabha, paving the way for new criminal law bills even though there is a still a lot of controversy over the names of the bill.

A “miscommunication” between the alleged shooters of Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi and their handlers over the escape plan from Rajasthan’s Jaipur after the killing led to their arrest, according to Delhi Police officials.

Shooters Rohit Rathore and Nitin Fauji were supposed to get out of Jaipur immediately by boarding a truck after killing Gogamedi on December 5, they said.

However, they could not because of a “miscommunication” between them and their handlers over the vehicle’s location, forcing the accused to come up with an alternative escape plan that involved using several vehicles and hiding at different locations, the officials said.

Rathore and Nitin Fauji were arrested in a joint operation of the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the Rajasthan Police from a hotel in Chandigarh, five days after the incident.

Talking to PTI, an official, aware of the developments in the investigation, said that according to a plan, “the duo were supposed to board a truck arranged by their handlers soon after killing Gogamedi”.

The truck would have taken Rathore and Nitin Fauji to “somewhere out of Jaipur but they could not find the vehicle”, the official said and added that when they again contacted their handlers, they were told that they were at a location far away from the truck. The official said Rathore and Nitin Fauji, then, stole a scooter to move and hid in a farm near the Jaipur-Ajmer bypass for at least an hour, waiting for a message from their handlers. They were in contact with their handlers on the Signal app, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

“While at the field, they met with farmers, whom they told that they were students and had lost their way,” the official said. When they did not get any reply from their handlers, they made their own plan and hired a taxi for Didwana and further took a bus, a train and another taxi to move to Hisar, then Manali and finally reach Chandigarh, the official added. The officials said the attackers were in contact with Virender Charan, who provided them arms through couriers on the direction of Rohit Godara, a close associate of the Lawrence-Goldy Brar criminal gang. Charan and Godara, both are suspected to be hiding in European countries, sources said. Godara was the one who claimed responsibility for Gogamedi’s killing in a Facebook post, saying the Karni Sena chief was backing his enemies.

The officials said Rathore and Nitin Fauji were promised passports and visas within 20 days of the incident to flee the country, but till then they had to remain in hiding. Godara, a former LLB student who was earlier arrested in a case of rape in Rajasthan, believed that he went to jail because of Gogamedi. Nitin Fauji, who quit the Indian Army after he was named in a kidnapping case in Haryana, wanted to settle abroad, the officials said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)