Bhopal, April 2: Another son is rising in Madhya Pradesh politics.

Kartikey Singh Chouhan, 23, the son of BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is spending a lot of time in political activities, giving a clear hint of his ambitions.

Kartikey, a graduate from Symbiosis Law School, Pune, addressed a large gathering at his ancestral Jaitpur village in Sehore earlier this week. Many state cabinet ministers and spiritual leaders were present at the event. A proud Shivraj kept nodding in approval as Kartikey spoke.

Kartikey lauded Shivraj's efforts to clean the Narmada and the state government's move to plant 10 crore saplings on the banks of the river that passes through 1,300km of the state.

Kartikey was also seen escorting spiritual leaders Murari Bapu and Kamal Kishore Nagar and holding a saffron flag.

In Madhya Pradesh, the sons of several former chief ministers - Ravishankar Shukla, Arjun Singh, Motilal Vora, Govind Narain Singh and Digvijaya Singh of the Congress, and Kailash Joshi, Sunderlal Patwa and Virendra Saklecha of the BJP - joined politics.

There are many second-generation politicians - Deepak Joshi, Archana Chitnis and Surendra Patwa - in Shivraj's cabinet. State Congress chief Arun Yadav is the son of former state minister Subhash Yadav. The leader of the Opposition, Ajay Singh, is the son of Congress veteran Arjun Singh.

In his address last Monday, chief minister Shivraj said he was often tempted to introduce a law under which rapists would be hanged in public. He reminded the gathering that he had already announced that liquor would not be allowed to be sold within 5km of the banks of the Narmada from April 1.

While Shivraj is tight-lipped about his son's probable role in politics, Kartikey's Facebook page introduces him as a resident of the Budhni-Vidisha Vidhan Sabha, the Assembly segment represented by the chief minister. Kartikey's Facebook wall is full of political comments - praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cartoons and wisecracks mocking Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Sources close to Shviraj said Kartikey had a "natural flair" for public speaking. In 2013, when he was 18, Kartikey had addressed a seminar on the contributions of Swami Vivekananda. The seminar had been held at Nasrullahganj, the block headquarters of Sehore district, in the presence of many BJP leaders and supporters.

In January this year, Kartikey was invited as the chief guest at a prize-distribution ceremony of an inter-school sports meet in Budhni. In the invitation card, he had been referred to as " kunwar (crown prince)" Kartikey Singh Chauhan and the names of his parents were also mentioned.

Privately, many in the state BJP objected to Kartikey's participation in public events. "He is not qualified to attend these events other than his status as the son of a three-time chief minister. This is certainly an attempt to introduce him to public life," a Madhya Pradesh BJP minister told The Telegraph.

State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said it was ironical that the BJP's central leadership did not miss any opportunity to take pot-shots at dynasty politics but in Madhya Pradesh, Kartikey was being quietly introduced to public life.