Biju Janata Party (BJD) President Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Odisha for historic fifth term. Gita Mehta, prominent Indian writer and sister of Naveen Patnaik were also present at the swearing in ceremony of Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneshwar.
Apart from Chief Minister, Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal also administrated oath to Cabinet ministers. The new BJD governmment in the state will have 11 Cabinet Ministers and 9 Ministers of State.
LIVE:Swearing-in ceremony of CM and Council of Ministers #NewOdishaNabinaOdisha https://t.co/Y2WWG9qG3m
— Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) May 29, 2019
Odisha can have a maximum of 21 cabinet ministers including CM Naveen Patnaik which is 15% of the strength of the assembly as prescribed by the Sarkaria Commission. Naveen Patnaik have inducted 10 new faces in his State Cabinet.
READ: Naveen Patnaik-led Odisha govt to induct 11 Cabinet Ministers, 9 Ministers of State; 10 new faces get chance
While MLAs including Bikram Arukh, Pratap Jena, Niranjan Pujari, Prafulla Mallick, Ashok Panda and Sushant Singh are among the who have retained their ministerial berths in the state.
If Sources to be believed party is expected to appoint former minister and its Vice President SN Patro as the of the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
PM Narendra Modi took to Twitter and congratulated Patnaik for another term as Chief Minister. ‘Congratulations to Naveen Patnaik ji on taking oath as Odisha’s Chief Minister. 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’, said PM Modi in a tweet.
Reportedly BJD had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the swearing in ceremony. However, Narendra Modi could not attend the ceremony.
Congratulations to Shri Naveen Patnaik Ji on taking oath as Odisha’s Chief Minister. 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. @Naveen_Odisha
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 29, 2019
Earlier on Sunday, Newly elected MLAs of the Biju Janta Dal in Odisha met to elect Naveen Patnaik as the leader of the legislature party. Patnaik later met Governor and stake claim to form a government in the state. This will be the fifth term of Naveen Patnaik as the Chief Minister of Odisha.
Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday visited Shree Jagannath temple in Puri and sought blessings before taking oath for the fifth term.
State Polls and national elections in the state held simultaneously.
BJD in the recently concluded state polls won 112 seats, 5 less than what they had won in 2014 State polls. While BJP won 23, Congress 9 and one each bag by CPI-M and Independent Candidate. Odisha has a total of 147 Assembly seats.
While in national polls, BJD won 12, BJP managed to make inroads in the state with its victory on 8 Lok Sabha Seats while Congress only won a single Lok Sabha Seat.
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