Babulal Marandi (born 11 January 1958) is an Indian politician who was the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand, from 15 November 2000 to March 2003. A Santhal schoolteacher who became a full-time worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he built the Bharatiya Janata Party among the tribes of the region, left it to run his own party for fourteen years, and returned in 2020. He is the Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand assembly.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Babulal Marandi |
| Born | 11 January 1958, Kodaibank, Giridih district, Jharkhand |
| Age | 68 |
| State | Jharkhand |
| Community | Santhal |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party; earlier Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Jharkhand (2000–2003); Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests (1998–2000); Leader of the Opposition, Jharkhand (since 2025) |
| Constituency | Dhanwar |
| Spouse | Shanti Devi |
Early Life
He was born in a village in the Tisri block of Giridih district into a Santhal farming family. He graduated from a college in Giridih, took a degree in geography, and worked for about a year as a teacher in a village primary school.
The Sangh
He gave up the job to work for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and was the organising secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad for the Santhal Parganas region, living at Dumka. He moved to the BJP in 1990.
Career
Dumka
The BJP put him up at Dumka against Shibu Soren, the most powerful tribal leader of the region. He lost in 1991 and 1996. In 1998, as president of the party’s unit for the Jharkhand area, he defeated Soren, and the next year defeated Soren’s wife. The victories made his name.
He became Minister of State for Environment and Forests in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
First Chief Minister
When the state of Jharkhand was formed on 15 November 2000, the BJP-led alliance had the majority, and Marandi was sworn in as its first Chief Minister. He is credited with laying out the new administration, starting road building and proposing a new capital region for Ranchi.
His government’s policy on who counted as a local resident for government jobs set off rioting between tribal and non-tribal groups in 2002. Under pressure from allies, he resigned in March 2003 and was replaced by Arjun Munda.
On his own
Feeling sidelined, he left the BJP in 2006 and founded the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik). He won the Lok Sabha seat of Koderma as an independent and for his own party, and his party won a respectable number of assembly seats in 2009 and 2014, only to see most of its legislators defect to the BJP in 2015.
Tragedy
On 26 October 2007 Maoists opened fire on a cultural programme at Chilkhari in Giridih district, killing about twenty people. Among the dead was his son Anup, aged about twenty.
Return
In February 2020 he merged his party with the BJP, at a rally attended by the Union Home Minister. He was named leader of the party in the assembly, though the Speaker did not recognise him as Leader of the Opposition for years, pending a ruling on the merger. He became the party’s state president in 2023.
The BJP lost the assembly election of November 2024 to the alliance led by Hemant Soren. Marandi won his own seat of Dhanwar and in March 2025 was recognised as Leader of the Opposition.
Personal Life
He is married to Shanti Devi. He is known as a soft-spoken, methodical man of simple habits, without the flamboyance common in the state’s politics, and for his long padayatras through the villages.
He is one of a line of Chief Ministers that the young state has drawn from its tribal communities, whose common hero is Birsa Munda.
Featured image: Babulal Marandi in March 2025. Photo by the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, licensed under Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons.
