Bhubaneswar. BJP’s tribal leader and four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi will be the new Chief Minister of Odisha. The party has come to power with a clear mandate in the assembly elections in the state. With the coming to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the 24-year rule of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ended in the state. Announcing Majhi’s name, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Tuesday that K.V. Singh Deo and Prabhati Parida will be made Deputy Chief Ministers of the state.
These decisions were taken at the BJP Legislature Party meeting, which was attended by Singh and Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav as observers. Majhi (52) has been unanimously elected as the leader of the legislature party in the meeting. Majhi will replace BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik. Singh said in a post on ‘X’, “Happy to announce that Shri Mohan Charan Majhi has been unanimously elected as the leader of the Odisha BJP Legislature Party. He is a young and dynamic party worker who will take the state forward on the path of progress and prosperity as the new Chief Minister of Odisha. Many congratulations to him.” Mr Singh, who was the chief whip of the BJP in the previous assembly, was elected to the Assembly for the fourth time in the recently held assembly elections. He defeated BJD’s Meena Majhi from Keonjhar assembly constituency.
According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders are expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Majhi government at Janata Maidan on Wednesday. In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJP won 78 seats while the BJD got 51 seats. The BJD and the BJP were in alliance for 11 years from 1998 to 2009 and fought three Lok Sabha and two Assembly elections together. Patnaik had severed ties with the BJP before the 2009 general elections, a few months after the Kandhamal riots.
Mohan Charan Majhi (52) defeated BJD’s Meena Majhi by 11,577 votes from Keonjhar assembly constituency. He was the chief whip of BJP in the previous government. He has won the assembly elections for the fourth time. KV Singhdeo, who has been made Deputy Chief Minister, defeated BJD’s Saroj Kumar Meher by 1357 votes from Patnagarh, while another Deputy Chief Minister Prabhati Parida defeated BJD leader Dilip Kumar Nayak by 4588 votes from Nimapara. The new government will take oath at Janata Maidan here on Wednesday.
The journey from village sarpanch to the Chief Minister of Odisha
BJP tribal leader Mohan Charan Majhi, named as the 15th Chief Minister of Odisha, started his political career as a village sarpanch nearly three decades ago. Majhi (52), the son of a watchman hailing from Raikala village in the tribal-dominated and mineral-rich Keonjhar district, has been elected to the Odisha Assembly four times – in 2000, 2004, 2019 and 2024. A graduate, Majhi was the village head from 1997-2000. Before being elected MLA from Keonjhar in 2000, Majhi was also the secretary of the BJP’s Adivasi Morcha.
In the recent assembly elections, Mohan Majhi retained the Keonjhar seat by defeating BJD’s Meena Majhi. He was the chief whip of the opposition in the previous Odisha assembly and was vocal against the BJD government on many important issues. In his first reaction after becoming the Chief Minister, Majhi said, “With the blessings of Lord Jagannath, the BJP has won a majority in Odisha and is going to form the government in the state. I want to thank the 4.5 crore people of the state who voted for change.” Majhi said that the BJP will respect the trust of the people of Odisha. The BJP registered a historic victory by securing 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly. The new government will take oath at Janata Maidan here on Wednesday.