CM on week-long tour to US

BHOPAL: Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will not be in the state for the final phase of the urban civic polls being held in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Chhindwara. In the wee hours at 1:30 am on Saturday, Chouhan will leave for New Jersey for a week-long official visit to the US. Chief minister's office confirmed that he will leave from New Delhi and will return on February 6.
Chouhan will launch the Friends of Madhya Pradesh Conclave on Sunday at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Centre, Manhattan. He is scheduled to launch a website with the intention of preparing a global talents poll as suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the US in September last year.
He will be accompanied by his principal secretary Iqbal Singh Bains, principal secretary commerce and industries Mohammad Sulaiman and commissioner public relations SK Mishra. The commissioner public dsrelations already made one trip to New York and New Jersey earlier this month to work out meetings with the chief minister and NRIs.
Meanwhile, with the chief minister away in the US and top cabinet ministers Kailash Vijayavargiya, Narottam Mishra and others busy with Delhi assembly elections, not many in the Madhya Pradesh cabinet will be around when results of the final phase urban civic polls is announced on Wednesday.