The Bharatiya Janata Party tribal leader and four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday oath took as the new Chief Minister of Odisha, where the saffron party came to power for the first time with a clear mandate in assembly elections, ending Biju Janta Dal’s 24-year stint. Majhi (52) succeeded Naveen Patnaik, the BJD supremo.
Along with the Chief Minister, his deputies Six-time legislator Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Prabhati Parida, a debutant MLA, were also administered oath by Governor Raghubar Das.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony of the Majhi government at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar.
The BJP won 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, while the BJD bagged 51.
Third Tribal CM Of Odisha
Majhi is the third tribal Chief Minister of Odisha after Congress’s Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang.
The tribal leader, who kicked off his political career as a village sarpanch nearly three decades ago, hailed from Raikala village in the tribal-dominated and mineral-rich Keonjhar district. The son of a watchman, he was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 2000.
BJP Maintains Regional Balance
The BJP’s selection of the Chief Minister and deputy CMs indicated the party’s strategy to maintain a regional balance. Majhi comes from Keonjhar in northern Odisha, while Deo and Parida belong to the western and coastal regions of the state respectively.
Deo is the titular head of the erstwhile royal family of Patnagarh (now Bolangir), while Pravati Parida is a lawyer. She will be the first woman deputy chief minister of the state.
Majhi Invites Patnaik To Oath Taking Ceremony
The BJD and the BJP were in alliance for 11 years between 1998 and 2009 and fought three Lok Sabha and two Assembly elections together.
Patnaik severed ties with the saffron party ahead of the 2009 general elections, months after a riot in Kandhamal the previous year.
Hours before the BJP government was set to take the oath of office, Majhi met former CM Naveen Patnaik and invited him to the swearing-in ceremony.
Majhi drove to Naveen Niwas, Patnaik’s residence, where he formally extended the invitation.
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