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New Delhi: Forty-eight-year-old Charanjit Singh Channi took oath as the new Chief Minister of Punjab on Monday following the resignation of Amarinder Singh last week.
Channi, a three-time MLA, is a Dalit Sikh leader. Together Channi’s appointmentThe Congress is expecting a major boost to its prospects in the Dalit areas ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.
As Dalit politics is at the center ahead of assembly elections in five states early next year, ThePrint looks at India’s past Dalit chief ministers.
Bhola Paswan Shastri
Bihar got its first Dalit Chief Minister in 1968. Bhola Paswan ShastriAn Indian freedom fighter born in Purnia district of Bihar, represented the Jatav community in the state.
He took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar on 22 March 1968, but his term lasted only for three months as the Congress lost its majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
This was followed by mid-term assembly elections. Shastri again became the CM in 1969. This time his tenure was only for 13 days. He became Chief Minister for the third time in 1971 and served for seven months.
Ram Sundar Daso
Ram Sundar DasoA Dalit leader, who joined the Congress from the grassroots level, became the second Dalit Chief Minister of Bihar.
During the 1977 Bihar assembly elections, when the Congress was defeated by the Janata Dal, Das won from the Sonpur assembly seat. A Dalit leader, a two-time MP from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat and later a close aide of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Das died in 2015 at the age of 95.
Nitish Kumar had said that Das’s death is a big loss for the party, Bihar and for him personally.
Read also: Telangana politics now revolves around Dalits and KCR ushered in the change. why over here
Jitan Ram Manjhi
In May 2014, following the poor performance of the JD(U) in the Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar, taking moral responsibility for his party’s defeat.
But he brought a low profile Mahadalit face – Jitan Ram Manjhi as his successor.
Manjhi, a six-time MLA, was the Minister of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Welfare in Nitish’s cabinet. Manjhi, who belongs to the Musahar community, which accounts for two percent of the state’s electorate, took oath as the 23rd Chief Minister of Bihar.
Manjhi, once a clerk, played an important role in the political discourse of the state’s backward classes with the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the JD(U).
Mayawati
Born in New Delhi to a middle-class Dalit family, Mayawati became the first woman Dalit Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in June 1995. However, his term ended within four months.
Within a decade, she emerged as the biggest Dalit leader of the country. The BSP supremo led his party to a sensational victory in the 2007 UP assembly elections, when it got an absolute majority with 206 seats in the 403-member assembly. This was the first time the BSP won a majority on its own since its inception.
In 2007, Mayawati took oath as the Chief Minister for the fourth time. She went on to create history by becoming the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. complete a five-year term. None of the previous CMs could complete their five-year term, be it VP Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kyle Singh or Kamalapati Tripathi.
Read also: UP 2022 Do or die not just for Mayawati or BSP, but for the idea of a ‘mainstream’ Dalit party
Damodaram Sanjeevaiah
In the late 1960s, the Congress party formulated policies and welfare schemes to woo the downtrodden and weaker sections. To strengthen the support between SC and OBC, Damodaram Sanjeevaiah In 1960, the CM of Andhra Pradesh was made. The first Dalit CM of the state, his term ended within two years.
He was also elected as the first Dalit President of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1962. Known for his political strategy and administrative acumen, he also served as the Minister of Labor and Employment in the Lal Bahadur Shastri cabinet between 1964-1966. .
Sushil Kumar Shinde
Sushil Kumar ShindeSon of a former sub-inspector and cobbler, became the 22nd Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the first Dalit CM in 2003. A year later, after the Congress-NCP won the 2004 assembly election, Vilasrao Deshmukh was elected. From. m.
A Gandhi family loyalist, Shinde won four Maharashtra assembly elections – in 1978, 1980, 1985 and 1990. He was also appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in 2004.
Later, he became a part of the Manmohan Singh cabinet as the Union Energy Minister in 2006 and the Union Home Minister in 2012.
Jagannath Paharia
Born in a Dalit family in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, Congress leader Jagannath Paharia Won four Lok Sabha elections and was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1980, 1985, 1999 and 2003. In 1980, he took oath as the first Dalit Chief Minister of Rajasthan. However, his term ended within a year.
He succumbed to Kovid this year at the age of 89.
During his long political career, he also served as the Governor of Haryana and Bihar.
Read also: Electing Channi as Punjab CM brings back political potential in Congress game
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