The ruling party fielded seven Lok Sabha members, including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Prahlad Patel, and general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from Madhya Pradesh.
The move sent out signals that the BJP has kept options open for the top post and Chouhan may not be the automatic choice if the party retains the state.
Despite not getting an open endorsement from the central leadership for the CM post, the BJP leader put his heart and soul into campaigning where he often got emotional during his speeches.
Speaking at an event in early October on his home turf Budhni, Chouhan turned emotional and told the women in the gathering they would never get a "brother" like him and would miss him when he is not around. This led to speculation of him being sidelined in the party.
In the last phase of canvassing, Chouhan addressed as many as 13 poll meetings in a day, while the count was minimum 10 on other days after the election schedule was announced.
In contrast, his main rival and former chief minister Kamal Nath of the Congress addressed 2 to 4 rallies in a day.
Though the opposition Congress linked Chouhan to the multi-crore Vyapam scam, he emerged unscathed. The CBI gave a clean chit to Chouhan.
The Vyapam scandal was an entrance examination, admission and recruitment scam that was unearthed in 2013. It involved politicians, senior and junior officials and businessmen systematically employing imposters to write papers, manipulate exam hall seating arrangements and supply forged answer sheets by allegedly bribing officials.