BJP's Tribal Trump Card

The BJP got a majority in Odisha "because of the blessings of its 45 million people desiring change.

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

They reposed faith in the BJP, and we resolve to make Odisha number one". Mohan Charan Majhi, the party's first and the state's third tribal chief minister, will need to accomplish much to be able to live up to this promise. For, Odisha's electorate is high on expectation after bringing the curtain down on the fairly transformative 24-year reign of five-time CM Naveen Patnaik and his Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

The state's youngest CM ever, at 52, the fourth-term MLA from Keonjhar will have two deputies to share the load: Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, 62, and Pravati Parida, 57. A repeat of the BJP's governance formula at work in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, it will also bring into play a complex grid of consultation, devolution and oversight, with multiple stakeholders. Quite unlike Patnaik's rule, therefore, his won't be a one-man show.

There's also the burden of inexperience-nine of the 16 ministers sworn in at the June 12 ceremony in Bhubaneswar, which had top-of-the-line BJP leaders led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the septuagenarian Patnaik in attendance, are debutant MLAs. Singh Deo alone has ministerial experience.