Naveen opens innings 5.0

Bhubaneswar: Naveen Patnaik, who won the state elections with a resounding margin, took oath as the Chief Minister for a fifth consecutive term Wednesday. A 20-member Council of Ministers also took oath along with Patnaik at the Idco Exhibition Grounds here. The Chief Minister-designate was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Ganeshi Lal.
The newly-elected BJD MLAs also took oath as ministers, including 11 of Cabinet rank, at the swearing-in ceremony attended by a host of dignitaries.

Along with Patnaik, 11 Cabinet ministers – two of them new comers, 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 Wednesday 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, Cabinet minister Sudam Marandi took the oath in Santhali languge. The rest took the oath in Odia. Chief Minister Patnaik’s elder brother Prem Patnaik and sister Geeta Meheta graced the swearing in ceremony.
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 had captured 112 seats in the 147-member Assembly. Elections were held in 146 seats but polling in Patkura Assembly seat was postponed twice, once due to the death of BJD candidate and later due to the cyclonic storm Fani which devastated the coastal Odisha. Eleven Cabinet ministers who were sworn in — Bikram Keshari Arukh, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Niranjan Pujari and Pratap Jena — were Cabinet ministers in the previous government.

Arun Kumar Sahu, who was dropped from the cabinet in the past, was reinducted into the council. Padmanav Behera who was the cabinet ministers in the third term of the Patnaik government was aldo inducted. Sudam Marandi had earlier served as minister of state and this time he has been elevated to the cabinet rank. Sushant Singh who was a minister of state in the last government was elevated to the cabinet rank.

After the oath-taking, the Chief Minister addressed his new Council of Ministers and advised them to fast track governance for timely fruition of promises made to the people and for the transformation of the state into a new and empowered Odisha. He also emphasised his 3T concept of governance – teamwork, transparency and technology transformation. Naba Kishore Das and Tukuni Sahu were the two lucky 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 won the seat as BJD candidate.
On the other hand, two-time MLA Tukuni Sahu from Titlagarh in Western Odisha got the cabinet berth for the first time, the only woman in the ministry to become cabinet minister.

While the Chief Minister retained the key portfolios of Home, General Administration and any other Department specifically not assigned, Niranjan Pujari gets Finance and Excise while Bikram Keshari Arukha has retained the Forest and Environment and Parliamentary Affairs Department.
Prafulla Kumar Mallik also retains the Steel and Mines and Works Departments while he has also been made Minister of State for Home. Ranendra Pratap Swain has been given Food, Supplies and Consumer Welfare and Co-operation while Padmanabha Behera has been given charge of Planning and Convergence, Commerce and Transport portfolios.

Pratap Jena has been assigned the Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water, Law, Housing and Urban Development Departments, and Arun Kumar Sahoo Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development and Higher Education.

Read more: Naveen opens innings 5.0

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