Navinchandra Ramgoolam (born 14 July 1947) is a Mauritian politician who is the current prime minister of Mauritius, serving since 2024. He previously held the office from 1995 to 2000 and from 2005 to 2014 and intermittently served as leader of the opposition.
Ramgoolam is the son of former prime minister and governor-general Seewoosagur Ramgoolam and has led the Labour Party since 1991. After an astounding defeat in the 2000 General Elections, he became prime minister for a second term after his coalition, Alliance Sociale, won the 2005 General Elections. The 2024 general election saw the landslide victory of his coalition Alliance du Changement. Following Pravind Jugnauth's resignation as prime minister, Ramgoolam was sworn in for a third time at the State House of Mauritius in the presence of President Prithvirajsing Roopun.
Navin Ramgoolam was born to Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (SSR) and Sushil Ramjoorawon in Port Louis. SSR was the 6th governor general of Mauritius, as well as the first chief minister and prime minister of Mauritius. In the 1800s, his ancestors migrated to Mauritius from Harigaon in the Bhojpur district, Bihar and belonged to the Vaish community, and the Kurmi or Koeri (Kushwaha) caste.
Ramgoolam attended the Royal College Curepipe from 1960 to 1966 and then studied medicine in Ireland between 1968 and 1975, where he obtained the LRCP&SI from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Ramgoolam's early life was marked by significant personal and professional transitions. In December 1985, following the death of his father, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the first prime minister of Mauritius, Ramgoolam was on the verge of emigrating to Canada; however, he was persuaded by Sir Satcam Boolell, then leader of the Labour Party, and Paul Bérenger, leader of the Mauritian Militant Movement, to return to Mauritius. They encouraged him to assume the leadership of the Labour Party with the aim of forming a political alliance to challenge Anerood Jugnauth in the upcoming general elections.
During this period, Ramgoolam worked as a physician at Dr A.G. Jeetoo Hospital in Mauritius from 1985 to 1987. In 1987, he moved to the United Kingdom to pursue legal studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, part of the University of London. After completing his LLB degree in 1990, he returned to Mauritius and became the leader of the Labour Party, subsequently contesting the 1991 general election as its candidate.
The Labour Party and the MMM went on to forge an alliance to contest the 1995 elections. The alliance won all 60 directly elected seats from the mainland (with Labour taking 35 seats and the MMM 25). Ramgoolam became prime minister with Bérenger as his deputy. The coalition soon fractured and Ramgoolam dismissed Bérenger in 1997. Bérenger then became leader of the opposition and Ramgoolam formed a one-party government.
Jugnauth and Bérenger formed a new alliance to contest the 2000 elections. Part of the agreement was to allow Jugnauth to serve for the first three years of the five-year term, then resign to assume the Presidency and allow Bérenger to complete his unexpired term. Ramgoolam, for his part, formed an alliance with the Mauritian Party of Xavier-Luc Duval (PMXD), a breakaway from the PMSD led by Xavier-Luc Duval, the son of Sir Gaëtan Duval. The MSM/MMM alliance won 54 of the 60 directly elected mainland seats. Ramgoolam, who had retained his own seat, became leader of the opposition.
His Alliance Social won the general elections against the MSM/MMM outgoing government. He was again appointed as prime minister with a majority of 38 out of 60 seats. His alliance also won the local/municipal elections in 2006 where the MSM/MMM was severely defeated. These consecutive defeats and internal instability caused the break-up of the MSM/MMM coalition.
As the MSM had more seats than the MMM and Pravind Jugnauth was not elected, Nando Bodha was appointed as leader of the opposition.
With the 2010 elections approaching, Ramgoolam decided in 2008 to support Jugnauth for re-election as president, to forestall a possible return by Jugnauth to parliamentary politics, where Ramgoolam viewed him as a potential threat. Jugnauth's condition for accepting the offer was an alliance between the Labour Party and the MSM. At Ramgoolam's insistence, the Alliance de L'Avenir also included the PMSD, into which the PMXD, and its leader, Xavier-Luc Duval, had merged; seven of the sixty parliamentary candidates would come from the PMSD).
The Alliance de L'Avenir won 41 of the 60 directly elected seats. Ramgoolam remained prime minister and Pravind Jugnauth, son of Sir Anerood Jugnauth, became his Deputy. Following the involvement of some members of the MSM in the Medpoint Scandal, however, Ramgoolam dismissed the MSM from the government.
The general elections originally scheduled for 2015 were brought forward to December 2014. The Labour Party made a new alliance with the MMM, proposing a constitutional amendment to upgrade the presidency to a less ceremonial role. Ramgoolam and Bérenger, the MMM leader, claimed that the election was a referendum on the proposal, which they called the Second Republic. If the alliance won more than 45 of the 60 directly elected mainland seats, the Constitution would be amended; Ramgoolam would run for the presidency and Bérenger would succeed him as prime minister.
Ramgoolam and Berenger were opposed by the MSM-led Alliance Lepep, which also included the PMSD, which had been Ramgoolam's coalition partner, and a new party called Muvman Liberater, formed by a significant portion of ex-members of the MMM who were opposed to the idea of giving Ramgoolam more powers. The Alliance Lepep, which opposed the proposal for the Second Republic, won 47 seats out of 60. The Labour-MMM alliance won only 13 seats, 9 from the MMM and 4 from the Labour Party. Ramgoolam lost his seat for the first time in his political career. On 12 December 2014, he resigned as Prime Minister of Mauritius. He was so disgruntled about the loss of his seat in 2014 that, 3 years later, at a Divali Show event in 2017 he called voters of Constituency No.5 Triolet "stupid" and that they were better voters during the days when illiteracy was rampant in Mauritius, given that they were easier to manipulate. Ramgoolam compared his 2014 electoral wipe out to that of his father Seewoosagur Ramgoolam at the 1982 Mauritian general election. He also revealed that there was too much infighting amongst the political agents within the Labour Party.
Although he was not elected at the 2014 elections in Constituency No.5 Triolet, Ramgoolam retained leadership of the Labour Party and again presented himself as the party's leader at the November 2019 elections. Before the elections he made a coalition with the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate and Mouvement Jean-Claude Barbier which became known as Alliance Nationale. Instead of choosing Constituency No.5 Triolet, this time Ramgoolam stood as candidate in Constituency No.10 Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East. He revealed that his change of constituency was the result of a consultation that he had with a Christian priest who believed that Constituency No.10 would bring him more luck as his grand parents lived there, and that Constituency No.5 Triolet brought him bad luck as his father Seewoosagur was cremated there. However, once again Ramgoolam was not elected to the National Assembly. He was so disgruntled by his second consecutive defeat at the 2014 and 2019 general elections that he publicly blamed women for their way of voting, he also legally contested the results and made the Electoral Commissioner (Irfan Raman) his main target of legal action.
The general election was scheduled on 10 November 2024, where the Labour Party together with the MMM, Nouveau Démocrate and Rezistans ek Alternativ formed the "Alliance du changement", to oppose the "Alliance Lepep" which composed of the MSM, Muvman Liberater and the PMSD. The Alliance du changement won the general election with a 60–0 in its favour.