NEW DELHI, June 4: The Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik is set to completely overhaul his cabinet after seeking resignation of all his ministers en masse on Saturday.
All the ministers as per the chief minister’s wish submitted their resignations to Patnaik which were promptly send to the Raj-Bhavan for the governor Ganeshi Lal to accept their resignations. Official sources said swearing-in of the new cabinet had been scheduled for Sunday.
In addition to the ministers, the speaker of the state Assembly Surjya Narayan Patrol also resigned from the post fuelling speculations that he might be incorporated in the new cabinet by Patnaik.
This is the first time in Patnaik’s consecutive fifth term as the chief minister that all the ministers were asked to quit in one go. This will also be the first cabinet reshuffle in his fifth term.
While some of the ministers in the outgoing cabinet are expected to return in the new cabinet, Patnaik is all set to infuse new and young blood in his new cabinet ahead of the next elections in 2024. “Some MLAs have already received calls about their new assignments. They have been asked to remain present in Capital city of Bhubaneswar,” some senior ruling BJD leaders said.
The move was indicative of Patnaik’s growing confidence in the popularity of his BJD party which had been consistently improving its electoral performance. The BJD had registered landslide victory in State election 2019 by winning 112 seats in the 147-member assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress had to content with 23 and nine seats respectively.
After registering victory in Brajarajnagar bye-election on Friday, the BJD’s seat strength in the assembly has gone up to 113. Not only in the general elections, the regional party had also won all the bypolls held since the 2019 election retaining Bijepur, Tirtol, Pipili and Brajarajnagar assembly seats and snatching Balasore Sadar from the BJP.
“Never in the history of Odisha have all ministers asked been to resign. What does it indicate? It is the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who only matters in the party and nobody else. The victory in Brajarajnagar by-poll and Supreme Court’s order in favour of beautification programme appeared to have enhanced his confidence,” political analysts said.
Odisha CM is expected to give representation to all districts in the new cabinet. Senior Cabinet Ministers who would be shown door are likely to get key organizational posts to strengthen party for the 2024 elections, party sources said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
