Samikhsya Bureau
Setting a record in the political history of Odisha, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik was on Wednesday sworn-in as the chief minister for the fifth time in a row.
Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office and secrecy to Patnaik at a special function, organised for the first time outside of Raj Bhawan, at the IDCOL Exhibition ground in Bhubaneswar.
Along with Patnaik, eleven cabinet ministers — two of them newcomers, four ministers from the outgoing cabinet and five former ministers were also sworn in .
Similarly, among the nine ministers of state who were sworn in — eight were new faces while one was the minister in the previous government.
Patnaik and cabinet minister Ranendra Pratap Swain took the oath in English, while cabinet minister Sudam Marandi took the oath in Santhali language. The rest took the oath in Odia language.
Chief minister Patnaik’s elder brother Prem Patnaik and sister Geeta Mehta graced the swearing in ceremony along with other eminent persons and prominent leaders from industry.
Patnaik had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all MPs from Odisha and all the MLAs besides senior political leaders of other parties and top business houses to the swearing in ceremony.
The BJD has captured 112 seats in the 147-member assembly. Elections were held in 146 seat as election to Patkura assembly seat was postponed twice, once due to the death of the BJD candidate and later due to the cyclonic storm Fani, which devastated the coastal Odisha.
Among the eleven cabinet ministers sworn in today — Bikram Keshari Arukh, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Niranjan Pujari, Pratap Kumar Jena were cabinet ministers in the last government.
Arun Kumar Sahu, who was dropped from the cabinet minister in the past, was re-inducted into the cabinet. So also Padmanav Behera who was a cabinet ministers in the third term of the Naveen Patnaik government.
Sudam Marandi had earlier served as minister of state and this time has been elevated to the cabinet rank. Sushant Singh was also a minister of state in the last government and was elevated to the cabinet rank this time.
Naba Kishore Das and Tukuni Sahu were the two lucky ones to get the cabinet berth in the first chance. Das was the sitting Congress MLA from Jharsuguda assembly who quit the party just before the election and was elected to the assembly as BJD candidate and got a cabinet berth.
On the other hand, two time MLA Tukuni Sahu from Titlagarh got the cabinet berth for the first time, the only woman in the ministry to become cabinet minister.
