Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday effected a major reshuffle in his council of ministers by dropping five influential ministers and inducting nine legislators, including six new faces.
This is the first time Mr Patnaik, who also heads the regional outfit Biju Janata Dal (BJD), has acted independent of his erstwhile adviser and Rajya Sabha MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra.
Mr Mohapatra had led a failed coup on May 29 evening when the chief minister was away on a foreign trip.
The chief minister took a conscious move by removing the ministers who he suspected were hand in glove with Mr Mohapatra to dethrone him. They included two Cabinet ministers, Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, who had held finance portfolio for seven years without a break, and culture, information and public relations minister Prafulla Samal, minister of state (independent), energy minister Atanu Sabyasahi Nayak, school and mass education minister Pratap Jena and minister of state (independent) for labour and employment Puspendra Singh Deo.
At the same time, Mr Patnaik, who is visibly shaken after the attempt to oust him, rewarded Mr Mohapatra’s known bête noire Damodar Rout, Bijyashree Routray and Kalpataru Das as Cabinet ministers. He also inducted six new faces as ministers of state, including a woman.
The new ministers were sworn in by governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare at a special ceremony held here at Raj Bhavan in the afternoon.
They were assigned portfolios immediately after the swearing-in ceremony.
Kalpataru Das got panchayati and parliamentary affairs while Dr Damodar Rout was given health and family welfare. Similarly, Bijayashree Routray was entrusted with the forest and environment portfolio while Arun Sahoo got the got energy, information and public relations departments. Rabinarayan Nanda was given school and mass education whereas Pratap Keshari Dev got food supplies, consumer welfare, employment and technical education. Rajanikant Singh got industry, steel and mines while Sarojini Hembrum got handloom textile and handicraft.
Subrat Tarai, the MLA from Raghunathpali in Sundergarh district, got commerce and transport.
The chief minister Mr Patnik reshuffled in the portfolios of a few ministers. Prasanna Acharya, who held health and family welfare, was given the key finance department, while excise went to Niranjan Pujari.
Maheswar Mohanty was stripped of panchayati raj department and was given tourism, culture, planning and coordination departments.
Similarly, Raghunath Mohanty also lost the plum portfolios of industry, steel and mines and given housing, urban development, law and information technology, science and technology.