BHUBANESWAR : BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik today set a record in the electoral history of Odisha politics by swearing in as the Chief Minister of the state along with 21 council of Ministers for the fourth time in a row, at the Raj Bhawan premises.
Odisha Governor S C Jamir administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mr Patnaik and his 21 council of ministers at the lawn of the Raj Bhawan amid tight security. With this, Mr Patnaik becomes the longest serving Chief Minister of the state as no Chief Minister had earlier ruled the state for more than 14 years.
Only Congress Chief Minister J B Patnaik had ruled the state for 14 years although not consecutively. Along with the Chief Minister, 11 Cabinet Ministers and ten Ministers of state were also sworn in by the Governor. They included nine former Ministers who had served the outgoing government of Naveen Patnaik and 12 new faces. At least five former cabinet ministers in the outgoing government did not figure in the new cabinet. They are former ministers S N Patro, Maheswar Mohanty and Niranjan Pujari(all cabinet) and former minister of states Rajani Kant Singh and Subrat Tarai.
The Cabinet ministers sworn in today are– former Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat, Bikarma Keshari Aarukh, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijayashree Routray,Debi Prasad Mishra, Damodar Rout,Jogendra Behera,Lal Bihari Himrika, Pradeep Maharathi, Puspendar Singdeo and Usha Devi.
The ministers of states sworn in are– Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Arun Sahu, Prafulla Mallick and Ramesh Majhi, Ashok Panda, Pranab Prakash Das,Sanjaya Das Burma, Snehangini Chhuria, Sudam Marandi and Pradeep Panigrahi.
Of the 21 council of ministers sworn in today, 12 were new faces, four of them in the cabinet and eight in the minister of state. Five council of ministers in the last government did not figure in the new cabinet.
They are former Revenue Minister S N Patro, former Culture and Tourism minister Maheswar Mohanty, former Industries and Excise Minister Niranjan Pujari (all cabinet), former Steel and Mines minister Rajani kanta Singh and former Transport Minister Subrat Tarai.
Out of the 19 council of Ministers in the previous government, two were elected to the Rajya Sabha and 17 allowed to contest the elections of which three were defeated at the hustings. They are former Finance Minister Prasanna Acharaya, former School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda and former Food and Supply Minister Pratap Kishore Deb.
Of the 11 Cabinet ministers, Jogendra Behera and Puspendra Singdeo had earlier served the government and Badri Narayan Patra was the minister of state in the previous government.
Former Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat was inducted into the cabinet this time. Earlier, he had also served as cabinet minister in the Naveen Patnaik government. Similarly, out of the ten minister of states, the Chief Minister retained two of the previous government. They are Arun Sahu and Ramesh Chandra Majhi.
Mr Atunu Sabya Sachi Naytak had earlier served as the Minister of state but was dropped after a coup orchestrated by BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapoatra to dislodge the Naveen Patnaik governnent failed.
The rest seven Ministers of states are new faces and one of them Sudam Marandi had quit as the state president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha prior to the election and contested the election as BJD candidate.
Only two women candidate, one in cabinet and another in Minister of state were inducted in the new ministry formed by the Chief Minister. One of them Usha Devi had also last time served the Naveen Patnaik government as the cabinet minister. (AGENCIES)
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