All you needed to find out about Mohan Charan Majhi, the brand new Chief Minister of Odisha
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi with Deputy Chief Ministers Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida and others throughout a go to to Jagannath Temple in Puri, on June 13.
| Picture Credit score: PTI
After 24 years, Odisha has a brand new Chief Minister. Bharatiya Janata Get together’s (BJP) Mohan Charan Majhi, the influential tribal chief from Keonjhar, is the primary BJP Chief Minister in Odisha. Within the lately concluded Meeting and Lok Sabha elections, the saffron occasion defeated the seemingly invincible Naveen Patnaik and his Biju Janata Dal (BJD), profitable 78 of the 147 Meeting seats (BJD obtained 51, and the Congress 14); it swept the Lok Sabha election by securing 20 of the 21 Parliamentary constituencies (Congress received one).
On June 12, 16 ministers (11 Cupboard Ministers and 5 Ministers of State) of the brand new cupboard have been sworn in, together with Majhi and two Deputy Chief Ministers: Pravati Parida, and Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo. Pravati Parida, a first-time MLA from Nimapara, is the primary lady Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha. For Deo, a scion of the previous royal household of Patna Balangir, that is the second stint within the Odisha cupboard: he has been Minister of Business and Public Enterprise within the BJD-BJP coalition that dominated Odisha from 2000 to 2009.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Residence Minister Amit Shah, Union Well being Minister J.P. Nadda, and the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Goa, amongst a number of different Ministers. Naveen Patnaik, the long-lasting BJD supremo who dominated the State for over 20 years, was additionally current, and judging by the reception he obtained on the ceremony, it was clear that even in defeat, he had misplaced neither his reputation nor the respect he commanded when in energy.
Additionally Learn | Naveen Patnaik: The autumn of a titan
Majhi, 52, lived in poverty in Raikala village in Keonjhar. The son of a watchman, Majhi accomplished his commencement from Chandra Sekhar Faculty in Keonjhar, and have become concerned with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He taught for a spell on the Jhumpura Saraswati Shishu Mandir. In 1997, Majhi was elected sarpanch of Raikala, and across the identical time, was additionally made the Odisha secretary of the BJP’s Adivasi Morcha. In 2000 and 2004, he received the Keonjhar Meeting seat with a BJP ticket, and served because the deputy chief whip for 4 years (2004-2009) within the BJD-BJP coalition authorities. Although he misplaced the Keonjhar seat in two successive elections (2009 and 2014), Majhi received again the constituency in 2019; and this yr, he received by securing greater than 47 per cent of the votes. He was additionally a member of the Standing Committee of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes underneath the Orissa Reservation of Vacancies in Publish and Providers (For SC and ST) Act, 1975, and the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee within the State (2022 to 2024).
Cupboard composition
The BJP’s number of Majhi can also be being perceived as a intelligent transfer, with an eye fixed to securing the tribal votes. The tribal inhabitants in Odisha accounts for round 23 per cent of the entire inhabitants, and has historically supported the Congress and later the BJD. Over the previous few years, nevertheless, the BJP started to make inroads into this support-base. The saffron occasion started to achieve wider acceptance among the many tribal individuals in Odisha after former BJP minister and MLA from Rairangpur, Droupadi Murmu was elected President of India in 2022. On this Meeting election, the BJP received 18 of the 33 reserved Scheduled Tribes (ST) seats, wresting away 9 seats from the BJD and the Congress. Political observers imagine that the BJP’s alternative of Majhi on the helm would assist in the consolidation of ST votes within the days to come back.
Veteran political analyst from Odisha, Rabi Das factors out that some of the vital elements within the composition of the cupboard, is the BJP “shattering” the feudal mindset in Odia politics. Das advised Frontline, “For the primary time in Odisha, the decrease caste is dominating the cupboard. I all the time felt the BJP was a celebration of the higher caste, however this cupboard appears to be altering that notion. For those who have a look at the composition of the cupboard, you will notice there are three tribal ministers, together with the Chief Minister; there’s a Dalit minister; and there are representatives from the farming caste, and warrior caste. Among the many higher castes there is just one Brahmin and one Kayasta. The higher castes, who’ve all the time dominated the State, are nowhere within the image.”
