New Delhi, What makes Naveen Patnaik so adorable for the people of Odisha? Odisha had the verdict clear; it was Naveen Patnaik for the state and Narendra Modi for the country.
Naveen Patnaik has taken oath as Odisha chief minister. Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office on Naveen Patnaik.Naveen Patnaik won from his home turf Hinjili under the Aska Lok Sabha seat in southern Odisha and Bijapur in the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat in western Odisha.His party — the Biju Janata Dal — retained 12 of the 21 parliamentary seats in the state. The party secured 112 seats in the 147-member Odisha assembly. BJP won 23 seats and Congress managed to win nine seats.Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal Tuesday appointed 11 Cabinet ministers and nine Ministers of State on the recommendations of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, a communication from the Raj Bhavan said.The strength of the council of ministers in Odisha at 21, including the chief minister, is less than 15 per cent of the strength of the assembly as prescribed by the Sarkaria Commission.
10 new faces in Patnaik’s new ministry:
Telkoi MLA Premaanda Nayak, Titlagarh MLA Tukuni Sahu (Woman), Nimapara MLA Sameer Das, Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das, Kotpad MLA Padmini Dian (Woman), Balikuda-Erasama MLA Raghunandan Das, Junagarh MLA Dibyashankar Mishra, Bissam Cuttack MLA Jagannath Saraka, Simulia MLA Jyotiprakash Panigarhi, and Kakatpur MLA Tusharkanti Behera.
The 11 cabinet ministers are:
Ranendra Pratap Swain, Bikram Keshari Arukha, Prafulla Mallick, Niranjan Pujari, Padmanabh Behera, Pratap Jena, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Sudam Marandi, Sushant Singh, Naba Kishore Das, and Tukuni Sahu (woman).
The nine Ministers of State are:
Ashok Chandra Panda, Sameer Ranjan Dash, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian (Woman), Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath Saraka.Bikram Arukh, Pratap Jena, Niranjan Pujari, Prafulla Mallick, Ashok Panda and Sushant Singh are among the legislators who retained their ministerial berths.Senior MLA and former minister S N Patro is likely to be named as the Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly while Binjharpur MLA Pramila Mallick may be appointed as the government’s chief whip, sources said.Meanwhile, a day before taking oath as chief minister for a fifth consecutive term, BJD president Naveen Patnaik Tuesday visited Shree Jagannath temple in Puri and sought blessings of the Lord.”I prayed to Lord Jagannath for the people of Odisha before I take oath as chief minister tomorrow in Bhubaneswar,” Patnaik told reporters outside the temple.The Biju Janata Dal, which secured 112 seat in the 147-member Odisha Assembly in the recently concluded elections, held along with Lok Sabha polls, has been in power in the state since 2000.Though Patnaik in earlier four occasions (2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014) was sworn in at the Raj Bhavan, this is for the first time that he will be taking oath in a grand manner.
