Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Wednesday expressed condolences over the death of Dinabandhu Majhi, the elder brother of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. In a post on X, Sai described the passing as 'extremely saddening' and offered prayers for the bereaved family.

Writing in Hindi, the Chhattisgarh CM said the news of the 'untimely demise' of Dinabandhu Majhi was 'अत्यंत दुःखद' (extremely sorrowful). 'The grief of losing a loved one is a pain of life for which there can be no recompense,' he wrote, adding that his 'deep condolences are with Mohan ji and all his grieving family members in this difficult time.'

Sai invoked the presiding deity of Puri in his message, praying to Lord Jagannath to 'grant the departed soul a place at his sacred feet and give the grief-stricken family the strength and support to bear this immense sorrow.' He closed the post with 'Om Shanti' and tagged the Odisha Chief Minister's official handle.

Context

The condolence message was posted on the evening of 3 June 2026 from Raipur. It is addressed directly to Mohan Charan Majhi, who has served as Chief Minister of Odisha since June 2024 after the BJP's first-ever assembly victory in the state.

Sai, who took charge as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister in December 2023, is among the senior tribal leaders in the BJP and represents the Surguja region. The two leaders head neighbouring states that share a long border, tribal-majority districts and mineral belts.

Policy backdrop

Since the BJP formed governments in both Chhattisgarh and Odisha in quick succession, the two administrations have stepped up coordination on shared concerns, including tribal welfare programmes and the management of mining-affected regions along their common boundary.

Public messages of solidarity between chief ministers of the two states have become a routine fixture of this political relationship. The reference to Lord Jagannath, the cultural icon of Odisha, is in keeping with the customary tone such cross-state condolences take.

Stakeholders and impact

The immediate stakeholders are the Majhi family and the Odisha unit of the BJP, which is expected to organise the last rites. Beyond the family, the message reaches the wider party network in both states, where Sai and Majhi are seen as first-generation tribal chief ministers who rose through the organisational ranks.

For Chhattisgarh, the gesture reinforces the personal rapport between the two CMs at a time when both governments are working on overlapping development priorities in their adjoining tribal districts.

What's next

Attention will turn to whether a Chhattisgarh delegation or ministers travel to Odisha to attend the last rites, a step often taken in such cases. Any follow-up statements from the Odisha Chief Minister's Office on the funeral arrangements are also expected in the coming days.

The exchange, while personal in nature, underscores the increasingly visible political and administrative ties between Raipur and Bhubaneswar under their respective BJP governments.