Bhubaneswar June 5
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday reconstituted his ministry, inducted 13 MLAs into the cabinet and appointed eight others as ministers of state (independent charge). The new council of ministers has 12 fresh faces and five women.
Of the five women, three- Pramila Malik, Usha Devi and Tukuni Sahu have been given cabinet rank.
Leaders from Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes have also been given representation.
Governor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office and secrecy to BJD MLAs Jagannath Sarka, Niranjan Pujari and RP Swain at a ceremony held at the new convention center of Lok Seva Bhavan in Bhubaneswar.
On Saturday, all 20 ministers of the state had resigned, paving the way for the reorganization.
Speaker SN Patro also stepped down, but did not give any reason for doing so.
This is the first time that Patnaik has filled 21 posts in his council of ministers.
In his previous tenure, one berth was always vacant.
As per the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, Odisha can have a maximum of 22 ministers, including the Chief Minister.
Sources in the BJD said that Patnaik’s team has new and relatively young faces, who keep an eye on the 2024 elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assembly.
The development comes days after the Naveen Patnaik government completed three years of its fifth consecutive term as chief minister.
Of the 20 ministers who resigned on Saturday, Patnaik reappointed only nine – Jagannath Sarka, Niranjan Pujari, RP Swain, Prafulla Kumar Malik, NK Das, Ashok Panda, Tukuni Saho, Samir Ranjan Das and TK Behera.
Those that did not make it to the new team include Arun K Sahoo, BK Arukha, Padmanabh Behera, Pratap Jena, Sudam Marandi, Sushant Singh, DS Mishra, JR Panigrahi.