Bhubaneswar: Keonjhar MLA Charan Majhi has been elected as the Leader of the BJP Legislative Party in Odisha and he will be the new CM of the state, announced Singh. At the meeting, Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were announced as the two Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, who was one of the BJP observes to select the new CM after the assembly elections win, described Majhi as 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.
Mohan Charan Majhi Majhi is going to be the Chief Minister at the age of 52, while all the other Chief Ministers were older than him at the time of taking the oath of office. Even, five-time Chief Minister & BJD Supremo Naveen Patnaik was 54 years old when he was sworn in as the CM in 2000.
“I thank Lord Jagannath, the reigning deity of Odisha. It is due to the blessings of Lord Jagannath, that the BJP has achieved a majority in Odisha and is going to form the government in the State,” said Majhi after his name was announced.
“I would like to thank the 4.5 crore Odias who decided to vote for a change and bring the BJP to power in Odisha. The BJP will definitely honour the trust that the people of Odisha have shown,” added Mohan Majhi.
Mohan Majhi is setting the first record of becoming the Chief Minister of Odisha from Keonjhar. No Chief Minister has ever been elected from Keonjhar district. The former Chief Ministers were from Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam, Cuttack, Koraput, Balangir, Dhenkanal, Khurda, Jharsuguda etc. Many strong politicians from Keonjhar have been in the state cabinet, but none has ever been the Chief Minister till Majhi.
Mohan Majhi passed higher secondary from Jhumpura High School in 1987 and Class 12th from Anadapur College in 1990, as per his election affidavit. He had a BA degree from Chandra Sekhar College, Champua in Keonjhar and a LLB degree from Dhenkanal Law College. Mr Majhi was born in Raikala village in Keonjhar district. He is the son of a security guard.
Hailing from Raikala village in the tribal-dominated and mineral-rich Keonjhar district, CM-designate Majhi started his political career as a Sarpanch from 1997 to 2000. After making a modest beginning as the sarpanch of the Raikala panchayat, Mr. Majhi gradually ascended the political ladder. In addition to his political career, he briefly worked as a teacher at Saraswati Sishu Mandir, a school affiliated with the Sangh Parivar. He has been elected to the Odisha assembly from Keonjhar on four occasions – 2000, 2004, 2019 and 2024. He lost his seat in the 2009 and 2014 elections after the BJP-BJD alliance broke down.
Mr. Majhi, a law graduate with a Master’s in Arts, returned to the Assembly in 2019. His performance stood out during the five-year term from 2019 to 2024 when the voice of the 23 BJP MLAs was usually overshadowed by the 112 MLAs of the BJD in the Assembly.
Majhi has also served as the Secretary of the BJP’s State Adivasi Morcha, the Deputy Chief Whip from 2005 to 2009 during the BJD-BJP coalition government. He also served as the Chief Whip of the party in the last Assembly.
In the 2024 assembly elections, Majhi retained the Keonjhar seat by defeating BJD’s Mina Majhi. His performance in Odisha Assembly stood out during 2019-2024, when he introduced 7 Bills, including one for protection of whistle-blowers. Majhi will be the third tribal Chief Minister of Odisha after Congress’ Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang.
It should be noted that BJP won the assembly elections, bagging 74 seats in the 147-member House, and routed the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government that ruled the state for 24 years.
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