Bhubaneswar:
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik was Wednesday sworn-in as
Chief Minister of Odisha for the fifth straight term since 2000.
Governor
Professor Ganeshi Lal administered the oath of office and secrecy to
the Odisha’s most popular leader at a glittering ceremony attended by
industry bigwigs from different parts of the country along with members
of women self-help groups and other famous personalities at the IDCO
exhibition ground in state capital Bhubaneswar.
Apart from them, Naveen’s sister and eminent author Gita Mehta and brother Prem Patnaik also attended the ceremony.
Along with Naveen, 20 other elected MLAs also took oath as ministers.
The
eleven who took oath as cabinet ministers were Ranendra Pratap Swain,
Bikram Keshari Arukha, Prafulla Chandra Mallik, Niranjan Pujari,
Padmanabha Behera, Pratap Jena, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Sudam Marandi,
Susanta Singh, Naba Kishore Das and Tukuni Sahu.
The nine MLAs
who took oath as ministers of state were Ashok Chandra Panda, Samir
Ranjan Das, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda
Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian, Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath
Saraka.
The portfolios would be allotted later.