Mohan Charan Majhi has been named the new Chief Minister of Odisha, with Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida appointed as Deputy Chief Ministers. The announcement was made by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during a BJP legislative meeting in Bhubaneswar, which was also attended by BJP leader Bhupender Yadav.
Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, 62, won the 2024 Assembly elections from the Patnagarh constituency in Bolangir with 93,823 votes, narrowly defeating BJD's Saroj Kumar Meher by 1,357 votes. Pravati Parida, 57, won from Nimapara in Puri with 95,430 votes, defeating BJD's Dilip Kumar Nayak by 4,588 votes.
KV Singh Deo, a member of the erstwhile royal family of the princely state of Patna, has previously served as the president of the BJP state unit from 2013 to 2016 and was a cabinet minister in the Odisha Assembly from 2000 to 2009. His wife, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, won the Lok Sabha elections from Bolangir.
Pravati Parida, a social worker, has contested the Nimapara Assembly elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019. She lost the previous elections to BJD's Samir Ranjan Dash, running as an independent in 2009 and as a BJP candidate in 2014 and 2019.
The BJP secured a majority in the recent Assembly elections in Odisha, ending Naveen Patnaik's 24-year tenure. The BJP won 78 seats, while the BJD secured 51 seats and the Congress won 14 seats.
