Odisha: 21 ministers take oath as Naveen Patnaik does total cabinet revamp

The new Odisha cabinet include seven first-timers and three women. The ministers will be allocated portfolios later.

Updated on: Jun 5, 2022, 14:07:40 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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BHUBANESWAR: In the biggest ever cabinet reshuffle in his 22-year-long reign, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday inducted 21 ministers including 7 first-timers and three women, a day after his entire cabinet resigned en masse paving way for cleansing the ministry of several controversial faces.

This is the biggest ever cabinet reshuffle by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in his 22-year-long reign in Odisha. (ANI File Photo)

In the swearing-in ceremony held at the convention hall of the Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar, 13 cabinet ministers and 8 ministers of state with independent charge were administered the oath of office by governor Professor Ganeshi Lal.

The cabinet ministers who took oath are Jagannath Saraka, Tukuni Sahu, Pramila Mallik, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Tusharkanti Behera, Naba Kishore Das, Samir Ranjan Dash, Pratap Keshari Deb, Atanu Sabyasachi, Rohit Pujari and Rajendra Dholakia.

The ministers of state who took oath are Sabita Hembram, Srikanta Sahu, Aswini Patra, Ashok Panda, Usha Devi, Niranjan Pujari, Priti Ranjan Ghadei, Pradip Amat and Rita Sahu.

Their portfolios will be allocated later in the day, officials familiar with the matter said.

On Saturday, 20 ministers resigned from the cabinet on the lines of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government where all the ministers of the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government resigned en masse in April this year. On Saturday, Patnaik ordered the closure of offices of advisors/chairpersons of 23 different departments/corporations/boards.

Those who were dropped included law and panchayati raj minister Pratap Jena, higher education minister Arun Sahoo, minister of state (home) Dibya Shankar Mishra, commerce and transport minister Padmanabha Behera, labour and employees state insurance minister Sushanta Singh. 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. Though the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) refused to buckle under opposition pressure, party bosses were looking for an opportune moment to drop them from the ministry.

Bikram Arukh, who was the forest minister, will be the new speaker of Legislative Assembly after incumbent speaker Surjya Patro resigned on Saturday, citing health grounds.

The rejig has come about at a time when the BJD government completed three years of its fifth term in office on May 29 and the party notched up its 5th bypoll win after 2019 assembly election. The reshuffle comes a few months after the party emerged victorious in the panchayat and civic body elections. Though the party has been consistently doing well in the polls, party strategists feel a new team should take over to add momentum to several welfare measures being undertaken by the government.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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