More than 50 years after it came into existence, Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Bank Limited (apex bank) elected its first non-Congress chairman on Thursday. Former BJP MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat was elected unopposed to the prestigious post, held since 1958 by either Congress members or bureaucrats.

The grip of the oldest national party had been weakening on different rungs of the cooperative sector since 2003 when the BJP wrested power from it.

Union minister of state for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arun Yadav’s father Subhash Yadav, who remitted office in 2004, was the last elected chairman of the bank. The former deputy chief minister and state PCC chief had been chairman of the bank for 23 years in different stints. In the last few years the bank’s elections could not be held due to legal hurdles. Directors elected on November 11 facilitated unanimous election of Shekhawat and two deputy chairmen.