BHUBANESWAR: After steering the BJD to a landslide victory in Assembly elections, Naveen Patnaik today took oath as Odisha Chief Minister for a record fourth consecutive term.
Also sworn in were 21 ministers, including eight fresh faces as five members of the previous ministry were dropped.
Governor S C Jamir administered the oath of office and secrecy to Patnaik and members of his new council of ministers, including 11 of cabinet rank, at the Raj Bhavan here.
“We will work as a team for the prosperity and betterment of Odisha,” the 67-year-old Chief Minister who visited Puri in the morning to seek blessings of Lord Jagannath, said after being sworn in.
The eleven who took oath as cabinet ministers were Pradip Kumar Amat, Dr Damodar Rout, Debi Prasad Mishra, Pradip Maharathy, Bijayshree Routray, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Usha Devi, Lal Behari Himirika, Jogendra Behera, Badri Narayan Patra and Puspendra Singhdeo.
The ten ministers of state were Prafulla Mallick, Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Arun Kumar Sahu, Sanjay Kumar Dasburma, Sudam Marandi, Ashok Kumar Panda, Pranab Prakash Das, Pradip Panigrahi and Snehangini Chhuria.
Four-time MLA Pradip Kumar Amat was Speaker of the outgoing assembly and was also a member in the ministry of legendary Biju Patnaik, Naveen’s father.
Patnaik dropped five members of the previous ministry and inducted eight first time ministers, including cabinet minister Jogendra Behera, a five-time legislator.
Those dropped include Surya Narayan Patro, Maheswar Mohanty and Niranjan Pujari, who had held cabinet rank, while Rajanikant Singh and Subrat Tarai were ministers of state.-PTI
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While Patro was revenue minister, Mohanty held law, culture and tourism and Pujari was industries minister.
Those who became ministers for the first time were Pranab Prakash Das, Sudam Marandi, Prafulla Mallick, Snehangini Chhuria, Pradeep Panigrahi, Ashok Panda and Sanjay Das Burma. Of them Snehangini Chhuria was a first time legislator from Attabira in Bargarh district.
The new council has two women members, Usha Devi of the cabinet rank and Snehangini Chhuria a minister of state.
Usha Devi, who represented Chikiti in Ganjam district, had been women and child development minister earlier.
Lal Behari Himirika was the sole scheduled tribe member in the cabinet which also has a scheduled caste minister, Jogendra Behera, MLA from Loisingha.
Among the ministers of state, Ramesh Majhi and Sudam Marandi were members of the scheduled tribe, while Snehangini was the lone SC member. Three prominent ministers in the previous government – Prasanna Acharya, Rabi Narayan Nanda and Pratap Keshari Deb lost the elections, while two senior leaders Kalpataru Das and Sarojini Hembram, who held Panchayati Raj and Textiles departments, were elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The new team has two members belonging to royal families.
Usha was from the erstwhile Chikiti princely state and Pushpendra Singhdeo was a scion of the Dharmagarh royal family.
The composition of the new ministry appeared to be heavily tilted in favour of south Odisha, particularly Chief Minister’s home district of Ganjam, with five members finding ministerial berths.
Besides Naveen Patnaik who represented the Hinjili seat, there were three ministers from Ganjam district – Bikram Keshari Arukh (Bhanjanagar), Usha Devi (Chikiti) and Pradip Kumar Panigrahi (Gopalpur).
Other ministers from south Odisha were Pradip Kumar Amat (Boudh), Lal Bihari Himirika (Rayagada) and Ramesh Chandra Majhi (Jharigaon in Nabarangpur district).
The western region was represented by Jogendra Bahera, Pushpendra Singhdeo (cabinet) and Snehangini Chhuria (MoS).
From the coastal districts, prominent ministers were Damodar Rout, Debi Prasad Mishra, Pradip Maharathy, Bijayshree Routray (Cabinet), Ashok Kumar Panda, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Sanjay Dasburma and Pranab Prakash Das (MoS).
Badri Narayan Patra (cabinet) and Sudam Marandi (MoS) represented the northern region.
A total of 12 districts Kandhamal, Koraput, Angul, Balesore, Deogarh, Gajapati, Jharsuguda, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Sundargarh went unrepresented. –PTI
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