BJP leader Vishnu Deo Sai on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh at Science College grounds in Raipur which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior leaders of the party.
Chhattisgarh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan administered the oath of office to him. Vijay Sharma and Arun Sao also took oaths as the Deputy Chief Ministers of the state.
Former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was also present during the swearing-in ceremony.
Vishnu Deo Sai’s name was announced by senior BJP leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh after the legislature party meeting of the BJP’s newly elected 54 MLAs in Raipur on Sunday.
Sai won the Kunkuri Assembly seat with a total of 87,604 votes.
Sai hails from the influential Sahu (Teli) community which has a sizable presence in the Durg, Raipur and Bilaspur divisions. He is highly regarded among tribal voters.
He has been the “National Working Committee Member” of the BJP and former union minister of state for mines, and steel in the first Cabinet of PM Narendra Modi and was among the then 10 sitting BJP MPs in Chhattisgarh who were denied tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
He served as the state president of the party for Chhattisgarh from 2020 until 2022.
Sai started his political career as a village sarpanch. In 1989, he was elected as a ‘panch’ of Bagia village panchayat and the next year he became the sarpanch unopposed.
He was a member of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly from 1990-1998 from the Tapkara constituency. In 1998, he unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls from the adjoining Pathalgaon seat. Later, in 1999, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Raigad seat. Sai won four consecutive Lok Sabha elections from the Raigarh constituency from 1999 to 2014.