Madhu Koda
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Madhu Koda (born on January 6, 1971 in Patahatu, West Singhbhum) is the present Chief Minister of Jharkhand, a state of India. He was sworn in as the fifth Chief Minister of Jharkhand on September 18th, 2006. He has eight people in his cabinet. He is the first Independent member to be the Chief Minister of an Indian State.[citation needed] Madhu Koda began his political career as an activist with the All Jharkhand Students Union, and eventually became associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He won in the 2000 Assembly elections from Jaganathpur as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. In the government headed by Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Madhu became the Panchayati Raj Minister. He subsequently held this post when Arjun Munda took over the reins in 2003.
During the 2005 Assembly Elections in Jharkhand, the BJP denied Koda a ticket. He contested as an Independent candidate and won from Jaganathpur once again, defeating his nearest rival from the Indian National Congress by over ten thousand votes. With a fractured mandate in the state, Koda agreed to support a BJP-led government led by Arjun Munda, taking over as the Minister of Mines and Geology.
In September 2006, Madhu and three other independent legislators withdrew support to the Munda government, bringing it into the minority. In the subsequent period, the opposition United Progressive Alliance decided on him as consensus candidate to become Chief Minister. His government includes the representatives of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jaua Manjhi group, Nationalist Congress Party, All India Forward Bloc, 3 independent MLA's (besides himself), and the outside support of the Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.
