All Odisha ministers resign, cabinet revamp today
The reshuffle is seen as chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s bid to give a new look to his cabinet while getting rid of some ministers marred in controversy ahead of the assembly and general elections in 2024.
Bhubaneswar: All 20 ministers of the Odisha government on Saturday submitted their resignation letters to chief minister Naveen Patnaik ahead of the state’s biggest ever cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, people familiar with the development said.
The reshuffle is seen as Patnaik’s bid to give a new look to his cabinet while getting rid of some ministers marred in controversy ahead of the assembly and general elections in 2024.
State assembly’s speaker Surjya Patro was among those who resigned on Saturday. Later in the evening, officials in the chief minister’s office confirmed that 21 MLAs, including the speaker, nine of whom put in their papers earlier in the day, have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday noon. Of the ministers resigned, seven are first-time ministers.
Among the big names dropped in the cabinet reshuffle are law and panchayati raj minister Pratap Jena, forest and environment minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, higher education minister Arun Sahoo and minister of state for home Dibya Shankar Mishra. Arukh would be the new assembly speaker.
Jena’s name came up in the murder case of a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and his associate in Cuttack district last year. Mishra was embroiled in a controversy last year over the murder of a woman school teacher in Kalahandi district. Arukh also found himself in the dock after the family members of an assistant forest conservator, who died under mysterious circumstances last year, pointed fingers at him alleging that he was putting pressure on police.
The rejig has come at a time when the BJD government completed three years of its fifth term in office on May 29.
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