While a four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi was named as the first BJP Chief Minister of Odisha, the party also picked KV Singh Deo and Pravati Parida as the Deputy Chief Ministers.
KV Singh Deo, 62, who belongs to the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Patana, has won from the Patnagarh Assembly constituency six times. He registered his victory from the seat first time in 1995 and won subsequent elections in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, he lost the seat to BJD’s Saroj Kumar Meher who defeated him by a margin of 11,159 votes. In the 1990 Assembly election, he contested unsuccessfully as Janata Dal’s Bibekananda Meher defeated him by merely 1,925 votes.
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In the BJD-BJP coalition government led by Naveen Patnaik, he served as the Minister of Industries and Minister of Urban Development from 2000 to 2009. He also served as the president of the BJP's state unit from 2013 to 2016.
In the recently concluded general elections, he defeated BJD’s Saroj Meher by a narrow margin of 1357 votes.
First-time MLA gets Deputy CM berth
Pravati Parida, 57, is a resident of Nimapara. She completed her LLB at Utkal University in 1995 and enrolled as an advocate in Orissa High Court, the same year. Later, she also did M.A. in Public Administration in 2005 from Utkal University. Her husband, Shyam Sundar Nayak, is a retired government servant.
Known as a social activist, Parida previously contested from Nimapara Assembly seat in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 elections and lost to BJD's Samir Ranjan Dash in all. She fought the 2009 elections as an independent candidate but contested the 2014 and 2019 elections as a BJP nominee.
Her luck clicked in the 2024 general elections. She won from the Nimapara Assembly constituency by defeating BJD’s Dilip Kumar Nayak. While she secured 95,430 votes, Nayak polled 90,842 votes.