Tribal leader and four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi took oath as the first BJP chief minister of Odisha on Wednesday at a ceremony in Bhubaneswar attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several union ministers and chief ministers.
Senior BJP leaders K.V. Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were sworn in as the deputy chief ministers. Governor Rabghubar Das administered the oath of secrecy and office to them at Janata Maidan.
BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram, Ashwini Vaishnaw were among those who attended the ceremony. Several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand were also present.
Outgoing chief minister Naveen Patnaik also attended the event. Patnaik’s 24-year rule in Odisha came to an end after the BJP stormed to power, winning 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly. The BJD bagged 51.
Majhi is the third tribal chief minister of Odisha after Congress’s Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang. Majhi kicked off his political career as a village sarpanch nearly three decades ago. Hailing from Raikala village in the tribal-dominated and mineral-rich Keonjhar district, Majhi (52), the son of a watchman, has been elected to the Odisha assembly on four occasions 2000, 2004, 2019 and 2024.
In the 2024 assembly elections, he retained the Keonjhar seat by defeating BJD’s Mina Majhi. He was the opposition chief whip in the previous Odisha assembly, countering the BJD government on several key issues.
