Bhubaneswar: Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha for a record fifth consecutive term. In a grand ceremony at the Exhibition Ground here on Wednesday, Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal administered oath of office and secrecy to Patnaik and his Cabinet Ministers.
The Governor also administered oath to 11 Cabinet and nine Ministers of State (MoS).
Among the Cabinet Ministers who took oath just after the Chief Minister were Prafulla Kumar Mallik, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Niranjan Pujari, Tukuni Sahu, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Pratap Jena, Sudam Marndi, Padmanabha Behera, Susanta Singh and Naba Kishore Das.
The Ministers of State (MoS) who took oath included, Ashok Chandra Panda, Samir Ranjan Dash, Jyoti Prakash Panigarh, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian, Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath Saraka.
The venue was packed with more than 5,000 dignitaries, including Naveen Patnaik’s sister Gita Mehta and elder brother Prem Patnaik, journalist Prabhu Chawla and industrialist Naveen Jindal.
Patnaik took oath as the Chief Minister of Odisha for a record fifth consecutive term. He has been the Chief Minister of the State since 2000.
The BJD has emerged a clear winner, bagging 112 in the 147-strong Assembly. In the outgoing Assembly, the regional party had 117 seats. It too bagged 12 seats out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.
