Bhubaneswar:
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sacked 33 ministers during the last 12 years in office while only two resigned.
Only four of the 35 ministers sacked were able to make a comeback. They were Debi Prasad Mishra (now Agriculture minister), Damodar Rout (sacked twice and now Health miister), Bijayshree Routray (now Forest and Environment minister) and Rabinarayan Nanda (now School and Mass Education minister).
The latest ouster took place on August 2 when Mr Patnaik sacked five ministers, including Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadai and Energy Minister Atanu S Nayak. Mr Patnaik dropped five ministers ahead of the ministry expansion.
The other ministers who were dropped before the ministry expansion were Prafulla Samal, Pratap Jena and Pushpendra Singhdeo.
Mr Patnaik sacked six ministers during his first stint as chief minister from 2000 to 2004 and the then Agriculture Minister Ramakrushna Patnaik had resigned after he was shifted from the Finance department.
A total of seven ministers quit the ministry during Mr Patnaik's first innings.
The six others who were dropped from the ministry were Kamala Das, Prashant Nanda (BJP), Nalinikanta Mohanty, Amar Satpathy, Debi Prasad Mishra and A P Singh. Similarly, during his second tenure as chief minister from 2004-2009, Mr Patnaik sacked 14 ministers on different grounds.
Mr Patnaik had in his third stint since 2009 sacked 14 ministers. They were Pramila Mallick, Pravin Bhanja Deo, Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, Damodar Rout, Pradeep Maharathy, Anjali Behera, Sanjib Sahu, Sarada Prasad Nayak, Prafulla Ghadai, Prafulla Samal, Atanu S Nayak and Pushpendra Singhdeo.
Former Excise Minister A U Singhdeo had resigned in April this year following a hooch tragedy in Khurda and Cuttack district.