Former Odisha Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha and senior Biju Janata Dal MLAs Sarada Prashad Nayak and Sudam Marandi are the newest members of the Odisha cabinet, led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik The three leaders were sworn in at the Lok Seva BHavan in Bhubaneshwar on Monday. Arukha has been named the finance minister while Marandi and Nayak now hold the school and mass education and labour portfolios respectively.
This re-jig of the Council of Ministers comes ahead of next year’s Assembly and General Elections.
The reshuffle- Patnaik’s second in his fifth term as CM- comes on the heels of the resignations of Samir Mohanty (school and mass education) and Srikant Sahu (labour) earlier this month.
The finance portfolio, on the other hand, was held by Niranjan Puri. However, Puri was assigned an additional portfolio after Health and Family Welfare minister Naba Kishore Das was assassinated in January. With Arukha’s induction, Puri will solely be handling the health portfolio.
