Mohan Charan Majhi, the Bharatiya Janta Party’s first chief minister of Odisha, took oath on Wednesday in Bhubaneswar along with two deputy chief ministers—K.V. Singh Deo and Pravati Parida—13 other ministers in the presence of Prime minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders of country.
Governor Raghubar Das administered the oath of office to Majhi and his colleagues in a grand ceremony at Janta Maidan where thousands of BJP supporters and general public from different parts of state had gathered. It was the first time that such a function had been held at Janta Maidan. The prime minister attending the swearing in ceremony of the state ministry was also new for Odisha.
Earlier in the day, Majhi met his predecessor and Biju Janta Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik at the latter’s residence and invited him to the swearing-in. Patnaik accepted the invitation and attended the ceremony. Modi met Patnaik after the meeting and the two leaders exchanged pleasantries.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, BJP president and new Union Minister Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini, Uttarakhand CM Puskar Singh Dhami, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Chhattisgrah CM Vishnu Dev Sai, Tripura CM Manik Shah, Madya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav and Union ministers from Odisha Dharmendra Pradhan, Juel Oram and Aswini Vaishaw were among the dignitaries at the programme.
A total of 16 ministers took oath on Wednesday even as the capacity of the ministry is 22. So, there may be future additions. Besides the two deputy chief ministers, there were eight cabinet ministers and five ministers of state (with independent charge).
The cabinet ministers include former state BJP president Suresh Pujari, Rabinarayan Naik, Nityanand Gond, Krushna Chandra Patra, Prithiviraj Harichandan who is the son of Chhattisgarh Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan, Mukesh Mahaling, Bibhuti Bhushan Jena and Krushna Chandra Mohapatra.
Five ministers of state with independent charge are Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia, Suryabanshi Suraj, Pradeep Balasamanta, Gokulananda Mallick and Sampad Kumar Swain.
The BJP has 78 MLAs in the newly elected assembly.