BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister-designate Naveen Patnaik is set to take oath as Odisha chief minister on Wednesday. Patnaik is set to take oath as chief minister of Odisha for the fifth time in a row.
Besides Patnaik, a 20-member Council of Ministers will also take oath on Wednesday. Biju Janata Dal chief Patnaik was invited by Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal on Sunday to form the next government in the state. The Governor also appointed 11 Cabinet ministers and nine Ministers of State on Patnaik’ recommendation
Patnaik, 72, is one of the longest-serving chief ministers in the country. He had contested from two Assembly seats and managed to won from both of them by a good margin. It is expected that Patnaik’s swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to be held at 10.30 am at the Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar. For his part, Patnaik has invited PM Narendra Modi and other political leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
The Cabinet Ministers who will take oath are Ranendra Pratap Swain, Bikram Keshari Arukha, Naba Kishore Das, Pratap Jena, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Niranjan Pujari, Sudam Marndi, Susanta Singh, Tukuni Sahu, Arun Kumar Sahoo and Padmanav BeheraThe state ministers include Ashok Chandra Panda, Samir Ranjan Dash, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian, Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath Saraka.
Voting for 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 seats in the Odisha Legislative Assembly were held simultaneously. Patnaik managed to ward off anti-incumbency and massive campaigning by the BJP to help his party get majority in Odisha Assembly. Patnaik himself won from two Assembly segments, his home turf Hinjili in southern Odisha and Bijapur in the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat in western Odisha. Patnaik’s party won 112 seats in the 147-member Assembly, while BJP won 23 and Congress managed to win nine seats. In Lok Sabha election, BJD won 12 out of 21 seats. Patnaik is the son of former chief minister Biju Patnaik.
Bureau Report
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