New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi has been named as the new chief minister of Odisha.
The decision was taken at the BJP legislature party meeting held in Bhubaneshwar on Tuesday, June 11, in the presence of the party’s central observers Rajnath Singh and Bhupendra Yadav.
Several names had been doing rounds until Majhi’s name was finalised. The announcement was preceded by intense speculation where Sambalpur MP Dharmendra Pradhan’s name was heard prominently for the coveted post. However, the speculation ended after Pradhan had been named a Union minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet.
Majhi, a tribal leader, won the Keonjhar assembly seat in the just concluded Odisha assembly elections, defeating the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)’s Mina Majhi by 11,577 votes.
Parvati Parida, an OBC, and K.V. Singh Deo, a former Kshatriya royal, have been named deputy chief ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony will be held on June 12, and will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers and several chief ministers from the BJP-ruled states.
The BJP ended the 24-year rule of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD by winning 78 seats in the 147-member assembly.
