Bhubaneswar: Braj Mohan Ram was sworn in as the 44th Governor of Odisha on Sunday during a formal ceremony held at Lok Bhavan in Bhubaneswar.
Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice Harish Tandon, administered the oath of office to the new state head.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy, state cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament, Members of the Legislative Assembly, and senior administrative and police officials were all present to witness the swearing-in.
Ram, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and three-time Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand, succeeds Hari Babu Kambhampati. His appointment was formally announced by Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 12, when President Droupadi Murmu named him to the post as part of a broader gubernatorial reshuffle.
Born on January 1, 1958, at Chandwa, in the former Palamu district of Bihar which now forms part of Latehar district in Jharkhand, Ram earned his degree from Ranchi University before pursuing an early career as an agriculturist. His entry into politics began in 1991 when he won a seat in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket, serving until 1995. He subsequently pivoted to national politics, representing the Palamu constituency in the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms after election victories in 1996, 1998, and 1999, shortly before Jharkhand was carved out as an independent state in November 2000.
After former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Ram is only the second senior leader from the state to be appointed Governor of Odisha. Kambhampati assumed office on January 3, 2025, succeeding Das.
