Mohan Charan Majhi takes oath as Odisha CM; PM Modi, Naveen Patnaik present

PM Modi was greeted by Mohan Majhi

BJP leader Mohan Charan Majhi was sworn in as the chief minister of Odisha on Wednesday, June 12, at a grand ceremony attended by several high-profile leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, among others.

Meawhile, Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were sworn in as Majhi's deputies.

Governor Rabghubar Das administered the oath of secrecy and office to Majhi and other members of his council of ministers at Janata Maidan.

Among one of the key faces present at the oath-taking ceremony was former chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik. In the recently concluded Assembly polls, the BJP came to power for the first time with a clear mandate, putting an end to 24-year stint of BJD.

The BJP won 78 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, while the BJD bagged 51.

Majhi is the third tribal leader of the state after Congress's Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang. His political career started as a village sarpanch and he was also the secretary of the BJP's Adivasi Morcha before being elected as an MLA from Keonjhar in the year 2000.

In the 2024 Assemble polls, he retained the Keonjhar seat after defeating BJD's Mina Majhi. He has been elected to the Odisha Assembly on four occasions in 2000, 2004, 2019 and 2024.

Majhi comes from Keonjhar in northern Odisha, while Deo and Parida belong to the western and coastal regions of the state respectively.

Deo is the titular head of the erstwhile royal family of Patnagarh (now Bolangir), while Pravati Parida is a lawyer. She will be the first woman deputy chief minister of the state.

Meanwhile, Suresh Pujari, Rabinarayan Naik, Nityananda Gond, Krushna Chandra Patra, Prithiviraj Harichandan, Mukesh Mahaling, Bibhuti Bhusan Jena and Krushna Chandra Mohapatra took oath as Cabinet ministers.

Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia, Suryabanshi Suraj, Pradeep Balasananta, Gokula Nanda Mallick and Sampad Kumar Swain were sworn in as ministers of state (independent).

(With agency inputs)