Leading towards the 5th consecutive term, Naveen Patnaik took oath as the chief minister of Odisha. Along with him, a 20-member Council of Ministers also swore in.
The 72-year-old BJD supremo is one of the longest-serving chief ministers. Governor Ganeshi Lal has invited Patnaik to form the government. On CM’s recommendation governor has appointed 11 Cabinet ministers and 9 Ministers of State.
The cabinet ministers include Ranendra Pratap Swain, Bikram Keshari Arukha, Naba Kishore Das, Pratap Jena, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Niranjan Pujari, Sudam Marndi, Susanta Singh, Tukuni Sahu, Arun Kumar Sahoo and Padmanav Behera. On the hand the state ministers include Ashok Chandra Panda, Samir Ranjan Dash, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian, Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath Saraka.
- Parliamentary and Assembly elections in Orissa were held simultaneously. BJD retained 12 of the 21 parliamentary seats on the other hand the party secured 112 seats in the 147-member Assembly. BJP won 23 seats and Congress managed to win nine seats. An independent and CPI(M) won one seat each.
- Patnaik won from two Assembly segments, his home turf Hinjili under the Aska Lok Sabha seat in southern Odisha and Bijapur in the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat in western Odisha.
- BJD was formed when former CM Biju Patnaik, father of Naveen Patnaik quitted Janta Dal in 1997. He became the chief minister for the first time in the year 2000 and his party had been in alliance with the BJP till 2009.
