Ministry reshuffle in Odisha: Find out who’s in, who’s out

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 6:

In what could be termed as the biggest reshuffle ever in over one-and-half decade in the state, as many as ten legislators will be inducted to the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in Odisha tomorrow as ministers.

The BJD leaders who will be sworn-in as ministers are: Digapahandi MLA Surya Narayan Patro, Sonepur MLA Niranjan Pujari, Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty, Pratap Jena, Bhatli MLA Sushanta Singh, Bhubaneswar (Jayadev) MLA Sashibhusan Behera, Bhandaripokhari MLA Prafulla Samal, Parjang MLA Nrusingha Charan Sahu, Cuttack Sadar MLA Chandrasarathi Behera and Bhograi MLA Ananta Das.

According to sources, six MLA will be sworn-in as Cabinet minister and five as minister of state. While Prafulla Samal, Niranjan Pujari, Surya Narayan Patro, Pratap Jena, Maheswar Mohanty and Sashi Bhusan Behera will be inducted as Cabinet ministers, Sushanta Singh, Nrusingha Charan Sahu, Ananta Das and Chandrasarathi Behera will be sworn-in as minister of state.

Minister of State (Independent Charge), Steel & Mines, Labour & Employees’ State Insurance Prafulla Kumar Mallik and Minister of State (Independent Charge), Commerce & Transport Ramesh Chandra Majhi have been elevated to Cabinet minister rank.

A formal notification was sent to Raj Bhawan here on swearing-in ceremony to be held tomorrow at 9.10 AM.

The intimation was sent after Governor SC Jamir reached here this morning from Manipur.

This comes on the day where as many as ten ministers tendered their resignation to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. A day before, Assembly Speaker Niranjan Pujari had resigned from the post.

Earlier in the day, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma, Finance Minister Pradip Amat, Panchayatiraj & Law Minister Arun Sahoo, Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahi, Housing & Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singhdeo, MSME Minister Jogendra Behera, Sports Minister Sudam Marndi, Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das, ST & SC Development Minister Lal Bihari Himirika and School & Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra resigned from their posts.

Notably, half of the ministers of the BJD government resigned paving way for the rejig.