As the Bharatiya Janata Party won the majority in the Odisha Assembly elections, the state unit is preparing for the swearing-in ceremony of Mohan Charan Manjhi as the new Chief Minister. The first invitation card has been given to Lord Jagannath in Puri.
The invitation card was delivered to the 12th-century temple by some of the newly elected MLAs including, Pravati Parida, Prithiviraj Harichandan, Irashish Acharya and Ashrit Patnaik. They went to the Jagannath temple with one card, two coconuts, betel nuts, and rice placed on a thali to invite the Lord for the ceremony.
"It is our Odia tradition to invite Lord Jagannath on all auspicious occasions. Therefore, we have come to invite the Lord. The party seeks his blessings," said Pravati Parida.
Naveen Patnaik invited to swearing-in ceremony
Moreover, BJP has also invited former CM Naveen Patnaik for the swearing-in ceremony. A 5-member delegation led by the BJP Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal including Suresh Pujari, Basanta Panda, Samir Mohanty, and Nityananda Gond went to Naveen Niwas, the residence of Patnaik, and formally invited him to attend the swearing-in ceremony to be held at 5 pm on Wednesday. accompanied Samal.
"Naveen Babu has accepted the invitation and assured us that he would attend the ceremony," Samal told reporters. Meanwhile, a group of MLA elects including the state BJP president said that the party would also invite the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) and other political parties to the swearing-in ceremony.
Mohan Charan Manjhi, new CM
Notably, BJP’s central observers Rajnath Singh and Bhupender Yadav met today with all MLA elects and decided Mohan Charan Manjhi as the new CM of Odisha. Along with him six-time MLA Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida have been elected as deputy chief ministers.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Bhupender Yadav have already reached Bhubaneswar to attend the BJP legislature party meeting as observers to elect the next chief minister, paving the way for the formation of the first-ever government of the saffron party in the state.
(WIth PTI Inputs)
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