BHUBANESWAR: After the organisational reshuffle in the ruling BJD, speculation is rife about a ministerial change as more than two years have elapsed since Naveen Patnaik took oath as Chief Minister for the fifth consecutive time on May 29, 2019.
It is perhaps for the first time in 20 years that the ministry headed by Naveen Patnaik has gone without a reshuffle for more than two years. The last time the ministry had a reshuffle was in May 2017 in the fourth term in which 10 ministers had to resign and take up organisational work to prepare for the 2019 General elections.
Several party leaders maintain that as the second wave of the Covid-19 is on the decline and there is a new look party organisation with fresh appointment of senior observers, observers and women’s wing office-bearers, the Chief Minister is likely to go for a change in the portfolios of ministers, drop some and induct new faces.
Sources maintained that five ministers are likely to be dropped while an equal number of new faces will be taken in. But wide-ranging changes in the portfolios of ministers are likely. Finance, Revenue, Food Supply and Consumer Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Agriculture portfolios may have new ministers.
Party insiders maintain that there are several aspirants who have remained outside the ministry and measures are on to accommodate them in the new dispensation. They include former ministers Pratap Deb, Badri Narayan Patro, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and a new face Latika Pradhan.
Kendrapara, a key coastal Odisha district politically, has gone without ministerial representation during the last two years. It was speculated that a minister from the district will be inducted after the Patkura by-poll in July, 2019. However, that did not happen.
Sources said that the Chief Minister may induct either Deb or Nayak to represent Kendrapara district in the ministry.Sources said the reshuffle is likely to be taken up after review of the departmental functioning of the ministers slated to start soon.