Giridhar Gamang (born 8 April 1943) is an Indian politician who was a leader in the Indian National Congress and a former Chief Minister of Odisha. He was born at Dibirisingi village in Rayagada district of Odisha. In 1972, he was elected for the first time to the 5th Lok Sabha from Koraput. Subsequently, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 2004. He was the Chief Minister of Odisha from 17 February 1999 to 6 December 1999.[2][3]
In 1998, while he was a member of the 12th parliament, he was asked to become Chief minister of Odisha. Two months later, there was a vote-of-confidence against the BJP government and Giridhar still went to the parliament to vote against the government as he was from congress (despite the fact that he had to quit either being CM or the MP office and become MLA, within six months). The government lost power by one vote (269–270) and it is widely believed that if Giridhar had abstained, the speaker, G. M. C. Balayogi would have used his vote to save the government in case of tie. The fall of government resulted in another fresh general election in May 1999.[4]
He had briefly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2015, was thought to be their potential Chief Ministerial candidate before being disregarded from consideration by the party. He quit Bharatiya Janata Party and joined Bharat Rashtra Samithi in 2023.[5][6]
