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Mohan Charan Majhi: Teacher who went on to become key tribal face
He was once a teacher, and took his first steps in politics in a small village in Odisha’s mining rich district of Keonjhar.
He was once a teacher, and took his first steps in politics in a small village in Odisha’s mining rich district of Keonjhar. He rose through the ranks quickly, winning his first assembly election three years after he was first elected sarpanch. There was a blip – he lost two consecutive assembly elections in 2009 and 2014. But a decade later, not only did he reclaim his position as an MLA, but 52-year-old Mohan Charan Majhi will on Wednesday take oath as the BJP’s first chief minister in Odisha, ending the 24-year-old stranglehold of Naveen Patnaik and his Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
The son of Gunuram Majhi, a government officer, Majhi grew up in Raikala in Keonjhar, and began his professional career as a teacher in a Saraswati Shishu Mandir, a chain of schools run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the district. But his ambition was clear, and in 1997, he fought and won the sarpanch elections in Raikola gram panchayat in Keonjhar. He was popular and outspoken, and a meagre three years later, made his debut in the Odisha assembly, winning from Keonjhar Sadar constituency, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Five years later, he won again.
There were two consecutive setbacks in 2009 and 2014, but Majhin retained the confidence of his party and won again in 2019. In 2024, as the BJP finally defeated the BJD across the state, winning 78 of 147 assembly seats, Majhi beat Meena Majhi of BJD, his closest rival, by little more than 11,000 votes.
On Tuesday, exactly a week after the results were announced, in a room at the state BJP headquarters in Bhubaneswar, flanked by Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan, Majhi was announced as the BJP’s pick for the position of chief minister.
Minutes later, his wife Priyanka Marandi, said, “I knew he would be a minister. But I had never dreamt that he would be the chief minister. It is a big responsibility for him.”
Part of the reason he has risen to the post, senior party leaders said, was that despite some electoral setbacks, he continued to be an important tribal voice in Odisha, where tribals comprise 22% of the population. Majhi is a Santhali, the tribe which President Droupadi Murmu also comes from, and has both a masters degree in Arts and a degree in law from Utkal University in Bhubaneswar.
Manoranjan Mahanta, a close associate of Majhi, said the latter has based his career on raising his voice against irregularities, but is modest and affable. “I have hardly ever seen him raise his voice to make a point. He never misses attending social functions in any of the villages in his assembly constituency. Even hours before he was announced as chief minister, he took out time to console the family members of his personal assistant who died in a road accident on Tuesday,” Mahanta said.
From Keonjhar, a mining rich district in Odisha, Majhi has been vocal about the alleged exploitation of local tribals, and in 2008, was among the loudest voices against the excessive mining of iron ore from Joda and Barbil areas of the district, which eventually saw an investigation by retired Supreme Court judge MB Shah.
Renowned wildlife and RTI activist Biswajit Mohanty, who was one of the whistleblowers of the mining scam, said Majhi would come to him for the RTI documents on the irregularities committed by several mining leaseholders. “He played a key role in uncovering the irregularities investigated by the commission,” said Mohanty.
In 2022, Majhi created ripples in the state legislative assembly when he sought protection from 27 MLAs, alleging a threat to their lives from the “mining mafia”. He also escaped an attack in 2021 when two motorcycle-borne miscreants hurled country-made bombs at his vehicle while he was returning home. In 2023, Majhi was suspended from the assembly for throwing toor dal at the speaker’s podium alleging a ₹700-crore scam in the purchase of pulses for the mid-day-meal scheme.
Rabi Naik, BJP MLA from Kuchinda, said: “His ability to connect with the masses is a big plus. As a four-time MLA, he has a deep understanding of the state’s governance system and has been instrumental in shaping the BJP’s policies for the region. His experience as government deputy chief whip in the 13th assembly, chief whip of BJP Legislature Party in 15th assembly and chairman of Public Account Committee from 2022 onwards have helped him get a grasp on the state’s issues.”
Heading the government with Majhi will be Pravati Parida, one of the two deputy chief ministers announced on Wednesday. Parida has been an advocate in the Odisha high court in 2005, and has served as the women’s wing president of the BJP in the state. She is a first time legislator, winning from the Nimapara assembly constituency – a seat she lost three times previously.
The second deputy chief minister will be KV Singhdeo, from the erstwhile royal family of Patnagarh in Bolangir district, who is a six-time MLA. Singhdeo’s grandfather, Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo, was chief minister of Odisha from 1967 to 1971.
Except one election loss in 2019, KV Singhdeo has been a BJP MLA since 1995 and served as minister in the Naveen Patnaik government between 2000 and 2009. His wife Sangeeta Singh Deo is the current Lok Sabha MP from Bolangir.
