Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of the party's first government in Odisha, while Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida were sworn-in as his deputies.
The ceremony, held in Bhubaneswar, the state Capital, was attended, among others, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJD president Naveen Patnaik. In the recently-held Odisha assembly election, the Biju Janata Dal, which had been in power here since 2000, got voted out, and Patnaik failed to secure what would have been his sixth consecutive term as chief minister.
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In the 147-member Odisha legislative assembly, the BJP now has 78 members, the BJD 51, and the Congress has 14 legislators. The coastal state also held simultaneous Lok Sabha election for its 21 parliamentary constituencies, of which the BJP won 20 and the Congress took one.
Here's the full list of leaders who took oath:
{{/usCountry}}In the 147-member Odisha legislative assembly, the BJP now has 78 members, the BJD 51, and the Congress has 14 legislators. The coastal state also held simultaneous Lok Sabha election for its 21 parliamentary constituencies, of which the BJP won 20 and the Congress took one.
Here's the full list of leaders who took oath:
{{/usCountry}}| Name | Designation |
| Mohan Charan Majhi | Chief Minister |
| Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo | Deputy CM |
| Pravati Parida | Deputy CM |
| Suresh Pujari | Cabinet Minister |
| Rabi Narayan Nayak | Cabinet Minister |
| Nityanand Gond | Cabinet Minister |
| Krushna Chandra Patra | Cabinet Minister |
| Prithviraj Harichandran | Cabinet Minister |
| Mukesh Mahaling | Cabinet Minister |
| Bibhuti Bhushan Jena | Cabinet Minister |
| Dr Krushna Chandra Mohapatra | Cabinet Minister |
Mohan Majhi, a ‘sarpanch’ who became CM
The new Odisha CM began his career as a ‘sarpanch’ or village head in 1997. He has contested four legislative assembly elections (2000, 2004, 2019, and 2024), each from the Keojhar assembly segment, and won.
Also Read: Sarpanch-turned-MLA Mohan Charan Majhi takes oath as Odisha chief minister
In the 2024 election, Mohan Charan Majhi defeated BJD candidate Meena Majhi by a margin of 11,577 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI). While the former secured 87,815 votes, Meena Majhi's tally stood at 76,238 votes, the poll panel's data shows.