Mohan Charan Majhi, 52, Is Odisha’s Next Chief Minister, Gets Two Deputy CMs

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named 52-year-old Mohan Charan Majhi as the next chief minister of Odisha. Majhi, the third tribal to be the state’s chief minister after Hemanand Biswal and Giridhar Gamang, will take oath on Wednesday afternoon.

Majhi was elected from the Keonjhar Sadar, a reserved constituency for tribals in the mining belt of Keonjhar. Only two of the state’s 14 other chief ministers, Hemanand Biswal and Giridhar Gamang, have been tribals who make up over 22% of Odisha’s population.

He was unanimously selected as the leader of the BJP’s legislative party at a meeting held at the BJP’s Bhubaneswar party office in the presence of Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and Union forest and environment minister Bhupinder Yadav.

Majhi, who was the chief whip of the BJP in the previous assembly, is a post-graduate who hails from the Santhal tribe and is counted among the erudite tribal voices in Odisha.

Back in 2009, Majhi was among the first to raise his voice against the excess mining of iron ore and manganese from the Joda and Barbil area of the district that led to an investigation by retired Supreme Court judge justice MB Shah (retd).

Renowned wildlife and RTI activist Biswajit Mohanty, who was one of the whistleblowers of the mining scam, said Majhi launched a concerted effort to investigate the scam. “He played a key role in uncovering of the scam that ran into billions of crores of rupees,” said Mohanty.

Two deputy CMs

Former minister and erstwhile royal of Patnagarh estate, Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo who won from Patnagarh assembly seat in Bolangir and Pravati Parida, a senior woman leader from Nimapara seat in coastal Puri district will be the two deputy chief ministers.

Shortly after Majhi’s name was announced, BJP workers gathered at the party’s State headquarters in Bhubaneswar where the legislative party meeting was held, raising slogans hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the newly appointed CM.

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