BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the State for a fifth consecutive term in a grand ceremony held at the Idco Exhibition Ground here on Wednesday.
Besides, 11 Cabinet Ministers and nine Ministers of State were also administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal.
Patnaik became third in the five-term Chief Ministers’ club of the country. Earlier, Jyoti Basu and Pawan Chamling had served West Bengal and Sikkim, respectively, as Chief Minister for as many terms.
After taking oath, Patnaik Tweeted, “It’s a nostalgic and personal journey for me to reminiscence the past 19 years. Today, while I take oath of office for the 5th term, I humbly accept the responsibility that comes with the faith my 4.5 crore family members (the State’s population) have reposed on me, yet again”.
Patnaik’s elder brother Prem Patnaik and sister Gita Mehta, MLAs, industrialists and many SHG women were present among about 10,000-stong crowd.
Among others, industrialists Kumar Mangalam Birla and Naveen Jindal, ITC chairman Sanjeev Puri, Tata Steel TV Narendran, Tech Mahindra MD CP Gurnani, Mind
Tree chairman KK Natrajan, Puneet Dalmia of OCL, Sangeeta Reddy of Apollo Group, PV Venkat Ramraja of Ramco Group, eminent cardiologist Dr Ramakant Panda, Dr TP Das and sDr Subrat Acharya attended the function.