Biju Janata Dal President Naveen Patnaik took oath as the chief minister of Odisha for a fifth consecutive term on Wednesday. Patnaik is the state’s longest serving chief minister.
Patnaik met the governor on Sunday to stake claim to form the government, hours after he was elected the leader of the Biju Janata Dal Legislature Party.
Twenty ministers also took oath after Patnaik’s swearing-in ceremony at the event organised at the Idco Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar. The new cabinet will have 10 new ministers.
The Biju Janata Dal came back to power last week after winning 112 of 146 Assembly seats while it secured only 12 Lok Sabha constituencies, down from 20 in the 2014 General Elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, made inroads in the state and won 12 Lok Sabha seats, up from one in 2014, and saw its tally in the Assembly rise to 23, an increase of 13 constituencies.
“Congratulations to Shri Naveen Patnaik ji on taking oath as Odisha’s Chief Minister,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. “Best wishes to him and his team in fulfilling the people’s aspirations. I assure complete cooperation from the Centre in working for Odisha’s progress.”
Governor Ganeshi Lal appointed on Tuesday appointed 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 cabinet ministers on Patnaik’s recommendation, PTI reported, quoting a Raj Bhavan communique.
The strength of the council of ministers in Odisha is 21, including the chief minister. This is less than 15% of the strength of the Assembly as prescribed by the Sarkaria Commission.
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