Naveen Patnaik sworn-in as Orissa CM

Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik was sworn-in as Chief Minister Thursday for the third consecutive term. Twenty other ministers also took oath of office with him.

Governor M C Bhandare administered the oath of office and secrecy to Naveen Patnaik and 20 ministers, including 11 of cabinet rank and 9 ministers of state.

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The 11 cabinet ministers who were sworn in are Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, Dr. Damodar Rout, Raghunath Mohanty, Ananga Udaya Singhdeo, Prasanna Acharya, Pramila Mallik, Debi Prasad Mishra, Surya Narayan Patro, Prafulla Samal, Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha and Bikram Keshari Arukh.

Among them Prasanna Acharya, Prafulla Samal, Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha and Bikram Keshari Arukh have been inducted for the first time.

And the nine ministers of state rank who took the office of secrecy are Sanjib Sahoo, Badri Narayan Patra, Anjali Behera, Pratap Jena, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pravin Chandra Bhanjadeo, Sarada Nayak, Pushpendra Singhdeo and Ramesh Majhi. Except Sanjib Sahoo all are new faces.

Thus in 20 ministers eight retained their place while 12 young faces were inducted for the first time.

Orissa Governor had invited Naveen Patnaik yesterday to form the government as BJD came out as the majority party.

Patnaik was formally elected by the party MLAs as the leader of the BJD legislature party on Tuesday.

In Assembly election 2009, BJD wrested 103 out of 147 seats and it also did remarkably well in Lok Sabha polls bagging 14 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Orissa.

BJD was part of the 11-year-old BJD-BJP alliance in the state which it snapped just before the elections in a bid to separate from the communal party, BJP.