Even as lobbying for Ministerial berths intensified in the State with Chief Minister-elect Naveen Patnaik giving finishing touches to his Ministry ahead of the Ministry’s swearing-in ceremony at the Idco Exhibition Ground here on Wednesday, the following 21 MLAs were reported to have received phone calls from the Naveen Niwas on Tuesday for inclusion in the team.
According to sources those who received the calls are Sushant Singh (Bhatli), Ashok Panda (Ekamra-Bhubaneswar), Tukuni Sahu (Titilagarh), Niranjan Pujari (Sonepur), Ranendra Prasad Swain (Athagarh), Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi (Simulia), Padmanabh Behera (Biramaharajpur), Bikram Keshari Arukh (Bhanjanagar), Pratap Jena (Mahanga), Dibya Shankar Mishra (Junagarh), Samir Ranjan Dash (Nimapara), Naba Kishore Das (Jharsuguda), Pratap Deb (Ali), Manohar Randhari (Nabarangpur), Snehangini Chhuria (Attabira), Jagannath Saraka (Bissamcuttack), Prafulla Kumar Mallik (Kamakhyanagar), Raghunandan Das (Balikuda-Erasama), Padmini Dian (Kotapad), Sudam Marndi (Bangirposhi) and Tusharkanti Behera (Kakatpur).
As many as 15 new faces, including two women, are going to take oath as Ministers. The new Ministry would have three women members. Sources also revealed that Surjya Narayan Patro (Digapahandi) has been chosen for the Assembly Speaker post and Pramila Mallick (Bijharour) as the Government Chief Whip. The list revealed that only six members of the last Ministry were called to take oath as Ministers.
Prafulla Samal, Dr Nrusingha Charan Sahoo, Shashi Bhushan Behera, Ananta Das, Badri Narayan Patra and Usha Devi were excluded from the team this time. Pradeep Kumar Amant and Amar Prasad Satpathy, who were Speaker and Government Chief Whip, respectively, last time have also been excluded.