ENDING A week of speculation, the BJP Tuesday announced Mohan Charan Majhi, a four-time MLA from Keonjhar and a tribal face of the party, as the new Chief Minister of Odisha. Majhi will take oath Wednesday along with two Deputy Chief Ministers — K V Singh Deo and Pravati Parida — at a grand event in Bhubaneswar which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 52-year-old Majhi, seen as a leader who has risen from the grassroots, was unanimously elected as the BJP Legislature Party leader at a meeting held in the presence of Union Ministers and party observers Rajnath Singh and Bhupender Yadav Tuesday. After the meeting, Majhi met Governor Raghubar Das to stake claim to form the government. “The Governor extended an invitation to Shri Mohan Charan Majhi to form the new government. Shri Majhi accepted the invitation and communicated to the Governor that the Council of Ministers would like to be sworn-in at 4.55 pm in Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. Accordingly, the Governor has appointed Shri Mohan Charan Majhi as the Chief Minister,” said a communication from Raj Bhavan. Announcing the Chief Minister choice of the first BJP government in the state, Defence Minister Singh said in a post on X: “Delighted to announce that Shri Mohan Charan Majhi has been elected unanimously as the leader of Odisha BJP Legislature Party. He is a young and dynamic party karyakarta who will take the state forward on road to progress and prosperity as the new Chief Minister of Odisha. Many congratulations to him.” The announcement came a week after the BJP stormed to power in Odisha by winning 78 out of 147 seats. Three Independent MLAs have extended support, taking their strength to 81. Speaking to reporters at the state BJP headquarters, Majhi said: “I express my gratitude to the 4.5 crore people Odisha who gave the mandate. I also thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has promised to make Odisha the number one state in the country. My sincere gratitude to state unit president Manmohan Samal under whose leadership we fought the election and won.” Although the names of party heavyweights such as Samal and Suresh Pujari had been doing the rounds for the top post, Majhi, who has no previous experience of discharging duty as a minister, emerged as the surprise choice of the party. The BJP’s decision to pick a tribal face as its Chief Minister in Odisha is being seen as an attempt by the party to consolidate its support base among the tribals, who comprise around 23% of state’s population. The party choices for Chief Minister and his deputies are also being seen as an attempt at striking regional balance. While Majhi is from Keonjhar in north Odisha, Singh Deo and Parida belong to the western and coastal regions of the state, respectively. Majhi will be the third tribal Chief Minister of Odisha after Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang, both from Congress. Parida will be the first woman Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Beginning his political career as a village sarpanch in 1997, Majhi was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 2000 from Keonjhar. He was re-elected from the seat in 2004 and became the deputy chief whip from 2005 to 2009 in the BJD-BJP coalition government. After losing elections in 2009 and 2014, Majhi was again elected from the seat in 2019 and retained it in 2024. In the previous Assembly, Majhi was the Opposition chief whip. Among the Deputy Chief Ministers, Singh Deo is a six-time MLA from Patnagarh and belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Patnagarh in western Odisha. He had also served as a minister in the erstwhile BJD-BJP coalition government. His grandfather Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo was a former Chief Minister of Odisha. Parida is a first-time MLA from Nimapada in coastal Odisha and had earlier served as the president of BJP’s women wing in Odisha. With the BJP winning the elections by raising the issue of Odia Asmita (pride) as its main agenda, the party has planned a grand oath-taking ceremony for the new Chief Minister. Besides Prime Minister Modi and other senior BJP leaders, the BJP has invited prominent Odia personalities from various fields to be part of the event. A delegation of senior BJP leaders led by state unit chief Samal met outgoing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at his residence and invited him for the swearing-in ceremony. There was no official word on whether Patnaik will attend the event. “There will be Deepavali tomorrow. I appeal to the people to light two diyas tomorrow — one for the new state government and another for the central government. I want to assure the people that the new BJP government will fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people,” Samal said. The entire capital city was decorated with lights for the BJP government’s swearing-in-ceremony. Meanwhile, the Odisha’s general administration department has issued a directive that no government official will be allowed to avail leave or permission to leave the headquarters, even on public holidays, (except on health grounds) until June 30 to attend to any urgent assignments after formation of the new government.
