Charan Das Mahant- Champion Of Tribal Rights (image-instagram/charandasmahant)
Speaker of the state Chhattisgarh, Charan Das Mahant is a prominent OBC leader of the Congress representing Sakti constituency for past four terms. In the 90-assembly constituent poll, Charan Das contested against the BJP leader Dr. Khilawan Sahu. He first won his seat in 2018 and has also served as a three-term Lok Sabha MP and Union Minister of State.
Charan Mahant is known for his contribution to tribal rights. He formulated action plans and events to uplift the tribal community, creating platforms for folk art, including drama, dance and songs.
Charan Das was born on October 11, 1954 in the Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh. He was bought up in a politically active environment as his family hails with a history of social and political engagement. This helped in shaping his political career. He pursued his career in law and holds a degree in LLB from Motilal Vigyan Mahavidhyalaya under Bhopal university in Bhopal.
He started his political career by joining Indian National Congress. He received wide acceptance at various party factions due to his ‘neutral face’. Charan left the post of Naib Tehsildar in 1984 to enter into politics. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 1998 and was later re-elected in 1999 and also in 2009 when he was the only Congress MP from Chhattisgarh.
His political career grew faster in the following years, just four years after joining politics he became a minister in Arun Singh’s Madhya Pradesh government in 1988 and went on to become the Home Minister and subsequently the Excise and Public Relation Minister in Digvijaya Singh’s government in the state in 1993.
His first Lok Sabha ticket came in 1998 from the Janjgir seat and became an MP. When UPA came back to power for the second term in 2009, he got the opportunity to serve as the Union Minister of state for agriculture in the Manmohan Singh government.
Unfortunately, he faced loss in the 2018 election. In 2019, with his strong campaign for the Chhattisgarh assembly election, he won and became the Assembly Speaker. This time Charan has more challenges in the election as he will have to break the myth in the assembly elections because in the past four elections held after the formation of the state, the people have voted against the sitting MLA thereby changing their leader.
As per the so far trend, in the assembly election in 2003, Medha Ram Sahu of BJP won and when elections were held in 2008, Saroja Manharan Rathore of Congress won. Similarly, in the elections in 2013, BJP”s Khilawan Sahu successfully won and in 2018, the people again changed their MLA and voted for Charan Das Mahant. Thus, the question arises whether Charan Das will be able to break this myth.
The veteran politician is greatly inspired by poet and saint Kabir, and has immense faith in astrology and is deeply religious. Mahant is also a writer and have authored 3 books of both fiction and non-fiction. His books are centered on India and its history, culture, politics, society and more.
