The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday picked a relatively unknown face—a four-time MLA and the party’s tribal face, Mohan Charan Manjhi—as the new Chief Minister of Odisha after senior state leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram were included in the Union government.
Additionally, the party has selected KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida as Manjhi’s deputies.
As a seasoned politician with four terms as a Keonjhar MLA, Majhi’s organisational abilities and dedication to public service have helped him win the top position. He was the youngest of the top contenders, at 52.
Deo, a former royal from Bolangir’s Patna (princely state), has served as an MLA six times. He served as a minister in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet for nine years until the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal formed an alliance in 2009.
After 24 years of Naveen Patnaik’s rule, the BJP is establishing government in the coastal state for the first time; therefore, choosing the new chief minister was a difficult decision.
The Central leadership had sent Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupendra Yadav as observers, and they were present at the meeting when the party chose the names this evening.
The meeting, which took place at the state BJP headquarters in Bhubaneshwar, was also attended by other senior leaders, including Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Jual Oram.
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