Bhubaneswar: Brajmohan Ram was sworn in as the 44th Governor of Odisha at Lok Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice Harish Tandon, administered the oath of office to him at a ceremony attended by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy, state ministers, MPs, MLAs and senior government officials.

Ram succeeded Hari Babu Kambhampati, who previously held the constitutional post.

President Droupadi Murmu appointed Ram, a senior BJP leader and three-time Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand, as the new Governor of Odisha on October 12.

Born on January 1, 1958, in Chandwa in the then Palamu district of Bihar, now part of Jharkhand's Latehar district, Ram graduated from Ranchi University. An agriculturist by profession, he entered electoral politics in 1991 after winning the Bihar Assembly election on a BJP ticket. He served as a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly until 1995.

Ram subsequently represented the Palamu parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms, winning elections in 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar to become a separate state in November 2000.

With his appointment, Ram becomes the second BJP leader from Jharkhand to serve as Odisha Governor, after former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das.