New Odisha cabinet takes oath; BJD leaders Jagannath Saraka, Niranjan Pujari among those sworn in - Here’s full list

Patnaik who recently completed 23 years in office apparently wants to give a new look to his ministry before the 2024 elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly, analysts said, as per PTI.

New Delhi:  A new cabinet sworn in on Sunday in Odisha, after all the ministers in the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD-ministry resigned a day before to allow the chief minister to reshuffle his ministry. BJD MLAs Jagannath Saraka, Niranjan Pujari and R P Swain were among the 13 MLAs who were administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Ganeshi Lal at the ceremony, being held in the new convention centre of Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar. Three women legislators -- Pramila Mallick, Usha Devi and Tukuni Sahu have been inducted into the cabinet.

Patnaik who recently completed 23 years in office apparently wants to give a new look to his ministry before the 2024 elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly, analysts said. This was the first time in the political history of Odisha that all ministers were directed to quit.

As many as 13 minister-designates have sworn in as cabinet minister while eight others took oath as minister of state (MoS). There were 20 members in the last council of ministers of Naveen.

The newly-inducted cabinet ministers are -- Jagannath Saraka, Niranjan Pujari, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Pramila Mallik, Usha Devi, Prafulla Kumar Mallik, Pratap Keshari Deb, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pradip Kumar Amat, Naba Kishore Das, Ashok Chandra Panda, Tukuni Sahu and Rajendra Dholakia.

Similarly, Samir Ranjan Dash, Aswini Kumar Patra, Pritiranjan Gharai, Srikanta Sahu, Tusharkanti Behera, Rohit Pujari, Rita Sahu and Basanti Hembram have sworn in as MoS.

However, Patnaik has not distributed the portfolios to the new ministers so far. The distribution is likely to be made by evening, officials said.

Seven BJD legislators -- Rajendra Dholakia, Aswini Kumar Patra, Rohit Pujari, Srikanta Sahu, Pritiranjan Gharai, Basanti Hembram and Rita Sahu -- have been inducted as ministers for the first time in their political history. Similarly, Jagannath Saraka and Ashok Panda got promoted to cabinet rank from MoS.

Patnaik has increased the representation from western Odisha in his council to seven as the ruling BJD is facing challenge from BJP in the region. Of the 20-member council of ministers, nine leaders were again re-inducted in the new cabinet.

Patnaik has dropped 11 ministers from the new council. The legislators who were dropped from the cabinet are-- Bikram Keshari Arukha, Padmanabha Behera, Pratap Jena, Aruna Kumar Sahoo, Sudam Marndi, Susanta Singh, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das and Padmini Dian.

(With agency inputs)