Odisha swearing-in highlights | Mohan Majhi takes oath as CM

After CM Majhi, his deputy K. V. Singh Deo took oath of office and secrecy. He was followed by the second Deputy CM Pravati Parida

Mohan Majhi on Wednesday took oath of office and secrecy as the new Odisha Chief Minister.

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The Congress accused the Centre of steadily reducing Odisha’s central funding in recent years and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to deprive the state of its fair share.

“The previous government of the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri had steadily reduced Odisha’s Central funding in recent years. According to CAG reports, central transfers as percentage of revenue receipts have been consistently decreasing from 57% in 2017-18 to 38% in 2021-22,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

Mr. Ramesh also pointed out that grants under recommendation of the Fifteenth Finance Commission have also decreased recently. “Will the ‘one-third’ Pradhan Mantri continue to deprive Odisha of its fair share?” he asked.

-PTI

Hours before the BJP government takes the oath of office, Odisha’s Chief Minister-designate Mohan Charan Majhi met former CM Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on June 12 and invited him to the swearing-in ceremony.

Mr. Majhi drove to Naveen Niwas, Mr. Patnaik’s residence, where he formally extended the invitation.

Read the story here.

It was nothing short of a miracle for the family members of Mohan Charan Majhi, as none of them had ever thought that he would become the chief minister of Odisha.

Mohan’s mother, wife and two sons, who reside in government quarters in Bhubaneswar, were surprised when Majhi was declared the new CM on Tuesday. They first learned about his elevation to the top post from local news channels. Until that moment, they had been completely unaware.

“I never thought that he (Mohan) would become the CM. I was expecting that he would secure a ministerial berth in the new BJP cabinet. It was a breathtaking surprise for me and my family,” Mohan’s wife Priyanka said, her voice tinged with disbelief and pride.

Priyanka said she, along with her family, was watching a news channel when they learned about the development. She expressed confidence that her husband would do good work for the people of the state and his own constituency, Keonjhar.

Mohan’s mother, Bale Majhi, said she is very happy that her son became the CM. “He came forward to serve the people when he was a youth. First, he became sarpanch, then MLA, and now Chief Minister,” she said.

- PTI

Ahead of his swearing-in ceremony, Odisha Chief Minister-designate Mohan Charan Manjhi said that protecting Odisha’s ‘Asmita’ (pride) will be the priority of the new government.

“The new government will take oath today. The first job after taking the oath is to work to protect Odisha’s ‘Asmita’ (pride),” Majhi told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our double engine government is coming will work for fulfilling Modi guarantees and to resolve the problems of marginalized people,” he added.

- ANI

Odisha’s CM designate Mohan Charan Majhi paid floral tributes at the statues of the State’s icons in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday morning, ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.

Accompanied by deputy CM designates KV Singh Deo and Prabhati Parida, Majhi paid floral tributes at the statues Utkala Mani Gopabandhu Das at Gopabandhu Square, Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das outside Raj Bhavan, Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deo at Power House Square, and Parala Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati and Ramachandra Mardaraj Deo at AG Square.

He also garlanded the statues of Fakir Mohan Senapati at Vani Vihar Square, Dharanidhar Bhuyan at Mayfair Square, Gangadhar Meher at Kalinga Hospital Square and Birsa Munda at Maitri Vihar.

- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Bhubaneswar at 2:30 pm and proceed to Raj Bhavan from the airport. He will later attend the oath-taking ceremony at Janata Maidan at 5 pm.

- ANI

The authorities have decided to deploy 67 platoons of the police for the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, an official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a number of Union Ministers and chief ministers of several states ruled by the BJP are likely to attend the event.

Apart from the VVIPs, about 30,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony to be held at Janata Maidan.

The Odisha government also announced that its offices in Bhubaneswar will remain closed for from 1 pm on Wednesday in view of the oath-taking ceremony.

- PTI

With its near-clean sweep in Odisha (20 out of 21 seats), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has finally managed to entrench itself in the eastern parts of the country. It also displaced the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government, which ruled Odisha for nearly quarter of a century. There was a vacuum in the State due to the continuing decline of the Congress, which offered the BJP an opportunity to move in.

Besides a routine change of power that political competition ensures, the strident campaign of the BJP including its criticism about an ‘outsider’ controlling the State government seems to have worked.