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On the recommendations of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal on Tuesday appointed 11 Cabinet ministers and nine Ministers of State.
In a function at the Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar, the ministers and the chief minister were administered the oath of the office on Wednesday.
Naveen Patnaik's swearing-in: TOP POINTS
- The strength of the council of ministers is 21, including the chief minister.
- It is less than 15 per cent of the strength of the assembly as prescribed by the Sarkaria Commission.
- Patnaik's new ministry has 10 new faces: 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.
- 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.
- Patnaik had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the swearing in ceremony.
- PM Modi has not attended the function.
