The ministers were administered the oath of office by Governor SC Jamir in the presence of Naveen Patnaik
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reshuffled the Odisha cabinet, a day after ten ministers resigned to make way for new people to be inducted. Mr Patnaik, who reshuffled his cabinet for the first time in three years, chose ten fresh faces for various ministries. He also promoted two ministers of state to a cabinet rank.
The ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor SC Jamir in the presence of the chief minister and other senior ministers at Raj Bhavan. While 10 new ministers were inducted in the council of ministers, Ministers of State Prafulla Mallick and Ramesh Chandra Majhi were given a cabinet rank.
"Six new cabinet ministers and four MoS were sworn in today. Two Ministers of State have also been elevated to the rank of cabinet ministers," Mr Patnaik said, shortly after the swearing-in ceremony.
Mr Patnaik inducted experienced leaders like SN Patro, Prafulla Samal, Maheswar Mohanty, Niranjan Pujari and Pratap Jena. Mr Pujari was the Speaker in the Odisha Assembly and had resigned from the post on April 5. He took oath as a cabinet minister. Pradip Kumar Amat, who resigned as the Finance and Health Minister of the state, is likely to become the next Speaker of the assembly.
The list of new ministers in the cabinet include:Cabinet Ministers: SN Patro, Niranjan Pujari, Pratap Jena, Maheswar Mohanty, Sashi Bhusan Behera and Prafulla Samal.
Ministers of State: Nrushingha Sahu, Anant Das, Chandra Sarathi Behera and Sushant Singh.
The ten ministers who resigned yesterday are:Pradip Kumar Amat, Debi Prasad Mishra, Lal Behari Himirika, Jogendra Behera, Pushpendra Singhdeo, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Sanjay Dasburma, Sudam Marndi, Pranab Prakash Das and Pradeep Panigrahi.
(With inputs from PTI)