Babu Lal Marandi (born 11 January, 1958) was the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand. The other important posts held by him have been National Vice President, Bharatiya Janata Party and Minister of State, Forests & Environment, Govt. of India. After the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, NDA came to power in Jharkhand with Mr. Marandi as the Chief Minister. However, he had to resign and make way for Mr. Arjun Munda (BJP) for the post in 2002 following pressure exerted by coalition allies primarily JD(U). Thereafter, he increasing moved away from political mainstage of Jharkhand irrespective of NDA being in power in Ranchi. In the 2003 Lok Sabha Elections, he contested from Koderma as a BJP candidate. He won the seat while all the other sitting MPs of NDA from Jharkhand including union ministers Mr. Yashwant Sinha and Ms. Reeta Verma lost their respective seats. His differences with the state leadership continued to increase and he even started criticising the state government in public. Eventually, he resigned from both Koderma LS seat and the primary membership of BJP in 2006 and floated a new political outfit named Jharkhand Vikas Morcha. In the recently held by-elections for the Koderma seat, he contested as an independent candidate and emerged victorious. Many believe that this result could have a big impact on Jharkhand politics as in the meanwhile, UPA has toppled NDA to gain power in Ranchi.

His son Anup Marandi was killed in a Naxal attack at Chilkhadia village in Jharkhand's Giridih district on October 27, 2007.