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Bhubaneswar, May 21 (PTI)
Biju Janata Dal on Thursday became the first regional party to come to power on its own in Orissa when a 21-member ministry headed by Naveen Patnaik was sworn-in.
Sixty-two-year-old Patnaik, the first leader to become chief minister for the third consecutive term, and other ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor M C Bhandare at a glittering ceremony at the Raj Bhavan Bhubaneswar. Eleven of the ministers are of cabinet rank, while nine are ministers of state.
The cabinet ministers are Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, Damodar Rout, Ananga Udaya Singh Deo, Surya Narayan Patra, Raghunath Mohanty, Prasanna Acharya, Pramila Mallick, Prafulla Samal, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Debi Prasad Mishra and Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, a first-time minister.
Of the ministers of state, except Sanjib Sahu, the others -- Sarada Prasad Nayak, Pushpendra Singh Deo, Ramesh Majhi, Pratap Jena, Prabin Chandra Bhanja Deo, Atanu Sabyasachi, Badrinarayan Patra and Anjali Behera are first-time ministers. Bhanja Deo, a scion of the erstwhile Mayurbhanj royal family, has been elected to the assembly from the newly-created Morada constituency.
The ministry has two women, Pramila Mallick, who has been retained as cabinet minister, and Anjali Behera. Seven of the 12 BJD ministers, who were part of the previous BJD-BJP coalition government, have also been included.
Three of the nine ministers in the previous cabinet are not members of the new house. While Surendranath Nayak and Chaitanya Prasad Majhi did not contest the polls, Duryodhan Majhi lost this time.
Another BJD member of the previous ministry, Sanatan Bisi, has lost the polls this time.
Damodar Rout, a former minister, who had been functioning as the regional outfit's Secretary General and spokesman, has been reinducted into the cabinet, while Prasanna Acharya, who had been representing the Sambalpur constituency in the Lok Sabha for the last three terms, has been made a minister.
Naveen profile
Dismissed by critics as a political greenhorn over a decade ago, Naveen Patnaik with his 'Mr Clean' image scripted history becoming chief minister for the third consecutive term after steering his BJD to a landslide victory in the assembly elections in Orissa.
BJD, which parted ways with BJP-led NDA in March this year abruptly ending its 11-year alliance, went it alone in both the parliamentary and assembly elections and emerged victorious in 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. The party swept to power in the state bagging 103 of the 147 assembly seats.
A reluctant entrant into politics, Patnaik plunged into public life in 1997 after his father, the charismatic Biju Patnaik, passed away, to lead the BJD to victory in the assembly elections in 2000 and 2004 in alliance with BJP.
What he proved after an acrimonious parting of ways with BJP in the backdrop of the riots in Kandhamal, was that BJD was a formidable political force on its own by sweeping both the assembly and Lok Sabha elections, hands down.
When the legendary Biju died, heavyweights in the Janata Dal like Ashok Das, Nalinikanta Mohanty and Bijoy Mohapatra roped in Naveen to contest the by-poll to the Aska Lok Sabha seat.
Naveen won the by-election and was made the president of the BJD, a regional outfit floated by Biju's followers after a split from the Janata Dal in December 1997.
