New Delhi [India], June 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Odisha CM-designate Mohan Charan Majhi.
The BJP’s Lotus has dethroned the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha after 24-year-old reign of Naveen Patnaik.
Majhi is the four-time MLA and party’s tribal face after senior state leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram were pulled into the Union government.
The party has also picked two Deputy Chief Ministers from the state, KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida.
The swearing-in ceremony of Odisha’s new Chief Minister will take place on June 12, Odisha BJP President Manmohan Samal had said.
“PM Modi will reach on 12th June by 2:30 pm for the oath-taking ceremony. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 5:00 pm,” he added.
Majhi was elected leader of the BJP legislature party in Odisha at a meeting held on Tuesday.
Mohan Majhi, who started his career as a Sarpanch from 1997-2000, was elected to the state assembly for the first time in 2000 from Keonjhar with the BJD-BJP alliance. He was re-elected in 2004.
From 2005 to 09, he was the government deputy chief whip in the BJD-BJP coalition government. He was again elected as an MLA in 2019. In the recent polls, Majhi retained the seat by defeating BJD’s Mina Majhi by 11,577 votes.
In the previous assembly, Majhi was the opposition chief whip. He will be the first from the tribal-dominated Keonjhar district to become the CM. The appointment of a tribal is crucial since the state has 23 per cent of tribal population.
Deo who has been chosen as the Deputy CM of the state is a six-time MLA from Patnagarh of Balanagir District and belongs to the royal family of Patnagarh, a prominent place in western Odisha. He lost the election in 2019 but won in 2024.
He had also served as a minister in the erstwhile BJD-BJP coalition government. Singh Deo’s grandfather Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo is a former CM of Odisha. His wife Sangeeta Singh Deo is now the MP from Balangir.
Pravati Parida who has also been chosen as the Deputy CM of the state is a first-time MLA from Nimapada of Puri District in coastal Odisha. She had earlier served as the president of the party’s women’s wing in Odisha.
After being elected as the CM, Majhi on Tuesday said that he would be sworn in as the Chief Minister tomorrow and then go to Puri for the darshan of Lord Jagannath.
“Tomorrow, after the swearing-in ceremony, I will come to the Secretariat and then go to Puri for the darshan of Lord Jagannath,” he said.
Manjhi’s son Premananda Majhi said that they were speechless adding that they had a feeling that his father would become the Chief Minister.
“We are happy. We are speechless… we are so happy that we are unable to say anything. We had a 50 per cent feeling that he (Mohan Charan Majhi) would become the Chief Minister,” he said.
Majhi’s wife Priyanka Marandi expressed her happiness and said, “I never thought this would happen I was sitting in front of the TV when I got this news. We are very happy.”
Deputy CM designate Parida said that the government will work one by one on everything the Prime Minister told the Odia people, regarding Odia pride, Lord Jagannath, regarding Jagannath temple.
“Starting tomorrow, we will work one by one on everything the Prime Minister told the Odia people, regarding Odia pride, regarding Lord Jagannath, regarding Jagannath temple. Our government will work for the poor, for youth, for women, for farmers. This is a party that gives extraordinary responsibilities to ordinary workers. I had never imagined that I would be given such a huge responsibility,” she said.
Another CM designate Deo thanked the BJP Central Parliamentary Board along with the PM for having put their trust and faith in him and appointing him one of the Deputy CMs.
“This is how the BJP functions. Being a cadre-based party, BJP’s central leadership gives importance to carrying all the people along with them and I think, making the right choice,” he said.
“I would like to thank the BJP Central Parliamentary Board along with the PM for having put their trust and faith in me and appointing me as one of the Deputy CMs. All I would like to say is that we came to power with the agenda of Viksit Bharat. We will go among the people with the same agenda. Tomorrow, for the first time, a BJP CM is going to take oath along with the two Deputy CMs. I don’t think you will see it the last time,” Deo added.
BJP will form its first government in Odisha after getting a majority in the assembly polls which were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party secured 78 seats in the 147-seat assembly. The BJD secured 51 seats, way behind the majority mark of 74 and the Indian National Congress secured 14 seats.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, also BJP performed well by securing 20 out of the 21 parliamentary seats in the state; the remaining one seat was won by Congress. (ANI)
