As per the BJD lawmakers who were intimated of their induction, the team of Naveen Patnaik, who will be taking oath as Odisha Chief Minister for a fifth consecutive term on Wednesday, is likely to be a mix of experienced and new faces.
Naveen Patnaik took oath as the chief minister of Odisha today morning at a public function in Bhubaneswar. This is Patnaik’s fifth consecutive term as CM. So far only two chief ministers in India: Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and Pawan Chamling of Sikkim have been chief ministers for five terms.
Minutes later, Patnaik tweeted accepting the responsibility. He wrote, “It’s a nostalgic and personal journey for me to reminiscence the past 19 years. Today while I take the oath of office for the 5th term, I humbly accept the responsibility that comes with the faith my 4.5 crore family members have reposed on me, yet again.”
It has been reported that more than 10,000 people attended the swearing-in ceremony despite the scorching heat and temperature touching 40 degree Celsius. Naveen Patnaik’s elder brother Prem Patnaik and sister Gita Mehta, a celebrated writer, attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Patnaik on taking oath. In a tweet, he assured the Odisha CM of Centre’s ‘complete cooperation.
After Mr. Patnaik, 20 ministers also took oath amongst whom half are first-time ministers. On Tuesday evening, Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal had appointed 11 cabinet ministers and 9 ministers of state on the recommendation of Patnaik.
Despite several political analysts predicting a hung assembly due to huge anti-incumbency wave and a resurgent BJP, Patnaik’s BJD won 112 seats in the Assembly, just 5 less than what it won in 2014 polls.
The 11 cabinet ministers who were sworn in along with Patnaik are all old faces except Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das and Titlagarh MLA Tukuni Sahu. Among the nine ministers of State, all are new faces except Ashok Panda. The strength of the council of ministers is now 21, including the chief minister, which is within 15 % of the strength of the assembly as prescribed by the Sarkaria Commission.
The oath-taking ceremony was attended by eminent sculptor Raghunath Mahapatra, vocalist Prafulla Kar, Odissi danseuse Priyambada Mohanty, eminent cardiologist Dr Ramakant Panda, Dr. TP Das, gastroenterologist Dr. Subrat Acharya, industrialists Kumaramangalam Birla, Naveen Jindal, Sanjeev Puri of ITC, Tata Steel’s MD TV Narednran, Tech Mahindra MD CP Gurnani, Mindtree president KK Natrajan, Puneet Dalmia of OCL, Sangeeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals Group and P R Venkatarama Rajha of Ramco Group.
