Arjun Munda (born 3 May 1968) is an Indian politician. He is the current Minister of Tribal Affairs in the Second Modi ministry. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was also Chief Minister of the Indian state of Jharkhand. He has also served as a member of parliament, having been elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Jamshedpur constituency in the 2009 parliamentary elections. The BJP's central leadership appointed him a National General Secretary of the party recognising his strong credentials as a popular mass leader and his significant contributions in strengthening the party in his state.
He lost his seat to Dashrath Gagrai of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha by 11,966 votes in Kharasawan in a 2014 state assembly election.
Arjun Munda was born on 3 May 1968 in Khrangajhar, Jamshedpur to a religious family of Ganesh and Saira Munda. After completing high school education in the Jamshedpur area, he graduated from Ranchi University and went on to earn a PG Diploma in Social Sciences from Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Munda began his political career in his teens during early 1980s when he joined the Jharkhand movement spearheaded by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) which sought to create a separate state for tribals from the southern regions of Bihar. A believer in the welfare of indigenous people of his region, Munda felt passionate about the issue and took an active part in the movement. Soon his political influence grew due to his inclusive philosophy and he was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Kharsawan constituency in 1995 on a JMM ticket.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) strongly espoused the cause of Jharkhand and ran on a promise to create the state. Munda was attracted to the aspects of selfless nation building and sacrifice in the ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He believed in its policy of championing the cause of Jharkhand and joined the BJP. He was elected again to the Bihar Assembly in 2000 elections on a BJP ticket from his old constituency of Kharsawan. After Jharkhand's formation, he was elected to the Jharkhand Assembly from the same constituency in 2005 and again in the 2011 by-election after assuming responsibility as the Chief Minister in September 2010.
When the NDA government came to power in 1999 under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee it kept its promise and created Jharkhand along with Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Munda became the Tribal Welfare Minister in the 1st Babulal Marandi-led NDA coalition government of Jharkhand, which was carved out from Bihar on 15 November 2000. As welfare minister, he crafted many policies and programs to ameliorate a lot of the poor and downtrodden. His vision, his work ethic, and his performance matrix soon catapulted him to the top leadership grade and his popularity and support base soared meteorically. His inclusive philosophy and his commitment to Jharkhand's high growth and development made him chief minister in 2003 at the young age of 35 when he was chosen as the consensus candidate to lead the state in the aftermath of Babulal Marandi's divisive domicile policy.
He took the oath as union minister in Narendra Modi's second cabinet on 30 May 2019 and became the Minister of Tribal Affairs.