CM-designate Raghuvar Das started as a student union leader

RANCHI: Starting his political career as an activist of the student movement launched by Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan in 1976-77, Raghuvar Das traversed a long way to take over as the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand.

In his days in the Jamshedpur Co-operative College, Das was an active student union leader.

Das joined the BJP as a simple worker and then gradually rose through the party ranks before getting the first break when he was nominated as party candidate from Jamshedpur (East) in the 1995 Assembly elections.

He went on to win the seat five times. He became a minister for the first time after the creation of Jharkhand in the Babulal Marandi government and got berths in the subsequent two governments led by Arjun Munda before becoming the deputy chief minister in the Shibu Soren-led government in 2009.

He held portfolios of finance, labour and urban development during his stint as cabinet minister.

A former employee of the Tata Steel, Das was twice the state unit's president.

Impressed by his administrative quality, BJP's national president Amit Shah appointed him as a vice-president of the party.

He is scheduled to take oath on December 28 as the chief minister of Jharkhand.