BHUBANESWAR: In the first reshuffle of ministry in the fourth term of Naveen Patnaik as chief minister, 11 ministers are set to be inducted. Ten ministers resigned (read dropped) to pave the way for the rejig on Saturday.
Some of those who were dropped have been asked to work for the party organisation as a face-saving measure.
Of the 10, finance and health minister Pradip Amat is likely to be the next Speaker of the Assembly in place of Niranjan Pujari who is going to be sworn in as a minister tomorrow. The swearing-in will be held at 9.15 am at Raj Bhawan. Others to be inducted in the ministry include old hands like Surya Narayan Patro and Maheswar Mohanty. Both Patro and Mohanty are experienced and senior leaders who have handled different ministries during their long careers. Mohanty is also a former Speaker of the assembly.
The reshuffle exercise also saw Naveen dealing with BJP's emergence in Western Odisha districts as well as Mayurbhanj which have been given adequate representation while appointing the new ministers. Former Speaker Pujari represents Sonepur assembly constituency, Sushant Singh, a new face, belongs to Bhatli constituency in Bargarh district. Bijay Nayak from the Karanjia (ST) constituency is a surprise inclusion as BJD was almost wiped out in the Zilla Parishad elections by winning only five out of the 56 seats while BJP had won 49 seats. BJP had also pocketed Zilla Parishads in Sonepur and Bargarh districts by winning a majority of zones.
The inclusion of Pratap Jena appears is seen as filling up the vacancy from Jajpur district arising out of Das' drop from the ministry. Government chief whip Anant Das and former minister Prafulla Samal have been rewarded for the party's performance in the panchayat polls. Besides, Balasore and Bhadrak districts to which Das and Samal belong respectively did not have any representation in the ministry.
Chandrasekhar Sarathi from the Cuttack Sadar constituency and Sashibhusan Behera from Jayadev are both from the SC community. Besides, Behera would also represent Cuttack district after the resignation of Debi Prasad Mishra who has been made a vice-president in the party. Similarly, Nrusingha Charan Sahu from Parajanga constituency in Angul district will also be sworn in tomorrow.
The chief minister thanked the ministers who he said resigned voluntarily to work for the party. "I am grateful to a number of ministers who have resigned voluntarily to work for the party. All of us in the party are very grateful to them," he said.