Odisha CM swearing-in: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mohan Charan Majhi took oath as the new Chief Minister of Odisha at Janata Maidan on Wednesday evening. He was administered the oath of the officer by Odisha Governor Raghubar Das, in a grand ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states. With this, Majhi also became the first Chief Minister from the saffron party as the 24-year-old tenure of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik ended following a massive defeat in the State Assembly elections. Apart from PM Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram, Ashwini Vaishnaw and others attended the ceremony.
Majhi pledges action on BJP's promises
In the recently-held Assembly elections, Majhi won the Keonjhar seat with a margin of around 87,815 votes. He defeated BJD's Mina Majhi from the constituency.Earlier in the day, Majhi, a four-term MLA, said work will begin within 100 days of the formation of the new government to fulfil the promises made in the BJP's manifesto. He 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.
Odisha Deputy CMs take oath
Meanwhile, BJP leaders Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were also sworn-in as Deputy Chief Ministers of Odisha. In the 2024 Assembly elections, Deo defeated BJD's Saroj Kumar Meher by a margin of 9,3823 votes, while Parida won the Nimapara seat by defeating BJD's Dilip Kumar Nayak with a margin of 4,588 votes. Notably, the BJP had ruled the state as an alliance partner of the BJD in 2000 and 2004 and this is the first time that the party formed the government on its own in Odisha.
List of Ministers who took oath:
Deputy Chief Ministers:
- Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo
- Pravati Parida
Cabinet Ministers:
- Suresh Pujari
- Rabi Narayan Naik
- Nityananda Gond
- Krushna Chandra Patra
- Prithviraj Harichandan
- Mukesh Mahaling
- Bibhuti Bhusan Jena
- Dr Krushna Chandra Mohapatra
Minister of State (MoS) with Independent Charge:
- Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia
- Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajna
- Pradeep Bal Samanta
- Gokula Nanda Mallik
- Sampad Chandra Swain
Odisha Assembly Elections 2024
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 78 seats in the Odisha Assembly Election 2024 with a vote share of 40.07 per cent. The BJP received 1,00,64,827 votes in the entire state. The saffron party won 23, 10 and 6 seats in the 2019, 2014 and 2009 Odisha Assembly elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party was having an alliance with the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the 2000 and 2004 Odisha Assembly elections. The party won 38 and 32 seats in the 2000 and 2004 Assembly polls respectively.
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