Odisha CM-designate Mohan Charan Majhi's journey from footpaths to the Chief Minister's Office

Mohan Charan Majhi, who is set to become the next Chief Minister of Odisha, has a unique and varied background.

His journey includes experiences as a farmer, a teacher at a school affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a village head (sarpanch), an advocate for the rights of the Adivasi community, and a campaigner against illegal mining.

Majhi's appointment as the first Chief Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state marks the high point of his understated yet significant political career.

The 52-year-old politician, who hails from the Santhal community, the same as India's first Adivasi President Droupadi Murmu, is seen as a strategic choice by the BJP, especially with the assembly elections in the predominantly tribal state of Jharkhand approaching.

Majhi's early life was spent in Raikala in the Keonjhar Sadar region, where he showed promise as a student and a keen interest in advocating for his community.

After studying law, he taught at the RSS-run Saraswati Shisu Vidya Mandir before entering politics.

He served as an elected sarpanch from 1997 to 2000, during which time he also became an MLA for the first time.

As the secretary of the BJP's Adivasi Morcha, Majhi quickly rose through the party ranks and was appointed as the party's chief whip in 2019.

He had previously served as the deputy chief whip when the BJP was part of a coalition with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from 2005 to 2009.

In 2019, after a gap of a decade since his last electoral victory in 2004, Majhi returned as the MLA for Keonjhar.

During this time, he made headlines when he revealed in the assembly that he had been forced to sleep on a footpath due to a delay in the allocation of a government quarter to him.

He shared that he couldn't rent a house at short notice, and his mobile phone was stolen while he was sleeping outdoors.

Majhi's journey has not been without controversy.

In September of the previous year, he was suspended along with Dalit legislator Mukesh Mahaling for allegedly throwing a handful of lentils at the then-speaker, Pramila Mallik, in protest against an alleged lentil procurement scam for mid-day school meals. He had contested the allegation.

In 2022, Majhi informed the assembly that some MLAs' lives were under threat from the mining mafia.

Now, as he prepares to take on the role of Chief Minister, the general administration department is searching for a suitable residence for him.

This is a new requirement, as the outgoing Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, had lived in his private residence in Bhubaneswar for the past 24 years.