Ace cricketer Chauhan scored several tons on political pitch

LUCKNOW: He may not have scored a century in his 40 Tests, but there was no dearth of tons for Chetan Chauhan in his political innings which started a few years after he played his last Ranji Trophy match in 1985. Chauhan, 73, who passed away in Gurgaon due to multi-organ failure after testing positive for coronavirus, was a two-time MP from Amroha and now a cabinet minister in the UP government.
Born in Bareilly, Chauhan made neighbouring Amroha his political karma-bhoomi and remained a loyal BJP worker throughout his political career spanning over three decades. He won the Amroha Lok Sabha seat for the first time 1991.
He lost the seat in 1996, but won again in 1998. After a couple of losses from the same constituency, he concentrated on ‘cricket politics’ in Delhi and came back to contest from Naugawan Sadat seat of Amroha in 2017 UP polls.
After his victory in assembly elections, he was made cabinet minister in the Yogi government and was given the charge of sports and youth welfare. In several interactions with TOI, Chauhan showed his determination to consolidate sports infrastructure in the state to lift it to the international standards.
As sports minister, he toured the state extensively and had an elaborate plan to develop the infrastructure on public private partnership (PPP) model.