Arjun Munda (born 3 May 1968) is an Indian politician. He is the current Minister of Tribal Affairs in the

Second Modi ministry The Second Ministry of Narendra Modi is the Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2019 general election which was held in seven phases in 2019. The results of the election were announ ...

. He is a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

. He was also Chief Minister of

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

. He has also served as a member of parliament having been elected to the

15th Lok Sabha Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee. Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won 44 more seats than the previou ...

from the Jamshedpur constituency in the 2009 parliamentary elections. The BJP's central leadership also appointed him a National General Secretary of the party recognising his strong credentials as a popular mass leader and his significant contributions in strengthening the party in his state. He lost his den to the JMM's Dashrath Gagrai by 11,966 votes in Kharasawan for 14 years in a 2014 state assembly election.

Early life

Arjun Munda was born on 3 May 1968 in Khrangajhar, Jamshedpur to a religious family of Ganesh and Saira Munda. After completing high school education in the Jamshedpur area, he graduated from Ranchi University and went on to earn a PG Diploma in Social Sciences from

Indira Gandhi National Open University Indira Gandhi National Open University, known as IGNOU, is a Central University located at Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, India. Named after former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of 20& ...

Political career

He began his political career in his teens during early 1980s when he joined the Jharkhand movement spearheaded by

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( lit. ''Jharkhand Liberation Front''; JMM) is a State political party in the Indian state of Jharkhand which was founded by Binod Bihari Mahato. It has one seat in the 17th Lok Sabha. Shibu Soren is the president of t ...

(JMM) which sought to create a separate state for tribals from the southern regions of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. A hardcore believer in the welfare of indigenous people of his region he felt passionate about the issue and took an active part in the movement. Soon his political influence grew due to his inclusive philosophy and he was elected to the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

from

Kharsawan Kharsawan garh is a town and a notified area in the Seraikela Sadar subdivision of the Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. History Kharsawan (also spelt as Kharsuan) was founded around 1650. It was one of the Oriya ...

constituency in 1995 on a JMM ticket. NDA strongly espoused the cause of

and made a promise that if elected they would create the

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

state of

. Munda was attracted to

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

's ideologyBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Retrieved 25 August 2014. of selfless nation building and sacrifice. He believed in its policy of championing the cause of

and joined

. He was elected again to the Bihar Assembly in 2000 elections contesting on a

ticket from his old constituency of

that he had been nurturing for many years. After Jharkhand's formation, he was elected to the Jharkhand Assembly from the same constituency in 2005 and again in the 2011 by-election after assuming responsibility as the CM in September 2010. When NDA government came to power in 1999 under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee it kept its promise and created

along with

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

and Chhattisgarh as three new States of the Indian Union. Munda became the Tribal Welfare Minister in the 1st Babulal Marandi-led NDA coalition government of

which was carved out from Bihar on 15 November 2000. As welfare minister, he crafted many policies and programs to ameliorate a lot of the poor and downtrodden. His vision, his work ethic, and his performance matrix soon catapulted him to the top leadership grade and his popularity and support base soared meteorically. His inclusive philosophy and his commitment to Jharkhand's high growth and development put him in the CM's chair in 2003 at the young age of 35 when he was chosen as the consensus candidate to lead the State in the aftermath of Babulal Marandi's divisive domicile policy.Jharkhand's crisis
Retrieved 25 August 2014. He took the oath as Union minister in Narendra Modi's second cabinet on 30 May 2019 and became the

Minister of Tribal Affairs The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a branch of Government of India, looks after the affairs of the tribal communities in India by providing educational scholarships, grants to create more health infrastructure in tribal communities and direct cash ...

Major achievements

Arjun Munda defused the tension that was created due to the "Domicile movement" in 2001–2002 and insisted that every citizen of India had the fundamental right granted by the Indian Constitution to live and work in any part of the country. During his tenure, Jharkhand got the 1st

Lokayukta The Lokayukta (also Lok Ayukta) ( ''lokāyukta'', ''"civil commissioner"'') is the Indian Parliamentary Ombudsman, executed into power, through and for, each of the State Governments of India. It is brought into effect in a state, after passi ...

and the State successfully conducted the 34th National Games in 2011. A 32-year-long jinx was broken when Jharkhand scripted history by conducting panchayat elections and empowered PRIs for participatory governance. His government introduced an e-tender system in government contracts to bring transparency and efficiency and to provide equal opportunity in the procurement process. He also took initiatives for setting up of new power plants with a view to making Jharkhand a power surplus state. He introduced some of the famous welfare schemes and programs that were later emulated by other Indian states, such as: *Kanyadan Yojana: To provide assistance in solemnising marriages of girls from underprivileged classes. *Mukhya Mantri Ladli Laxmi Yojana: To promote welfare of the girl child born to a BPL family and APL families having an annual income of less than Rs. 72,000, her education and safe motherhood. *Aapka-cm: The Grievance Management System was established to enable people to communicate directly with their CM and voice their grievances to the State leadership for prompt consideration and redressal. *Mukhya Mantri Dal Bhat Yojna: To provide wholesome food and nutrition to the poorest sections of society. Under this scheme, BPL families get dal, bhat and sabji for Rs 5 at railway stations, bus stands, hospitals and public places. *Free Laptop/Tablet: To prepare the youth to face challenges of the 21st century, tablets were to be given to students passing matriculation examinations under Yuwa Kaushal Vikas Scheme launched in 2013.

Personal life

An avid golfer, Munda is also interested in promoting archery at national and international levels. He plays flute and almost all tribal musical instruments widely used in the area. He has 3 sons. A multi-linguist, he speaks English,

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Odia, and several

languages and dialects of the region like Santhali, Mundari, Ho, Oraon and others.

References

External links

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Munda, Arjun 1968 births Living people Chief Ministers of Jharkhand Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Jharkhand Members of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly Jharkhand Mukti Morcha politicians India MPs 2009–2014 Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha members from Jharkhand Leaders of the Opposition in Jharkhand Jharkhand MLAs 2009–2014 People from Jamshedpur India MPs 2019–present Narendra Modi ministry Ministers of Tribal Affairs (India)