Bhubaneswar, May 22 (FN Bureau) Odisha Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal on Monday administered the oath of office and secrecy to three newly inducted members as Cabinet Ministers at an oath taking ceremony held in the Lokseva Bhawan.Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, members of the Council of Ministers and several top bureaucrats were present at the oath taking ceremony.Bikram Keshari Arukh, Sarada Nayak and Sudan Marndi were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made a minor reshuffle in the council of Ministers. The need for the reshuffle arose after former Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das was murdered by a cop on January 29 and two Ministers— Samir Ranjan Dash and Srikant Sahu resigned from the Council of Ministers on May 12 last.
All the three- Bikram Keshari Arukh, Sharada Prasad Nayak and Sudan Marndi were former Ministers and were re inducted into cabinet again this time.Bikram Keshari Arukh, a powerful BJD leader and six time MLA from Bhanja Nagar Assembly Constituency resigned from the post of Speaker on May 12 last. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1995, 2000, 2004, 2009,2014 and 2019. He has held many important portfolios in the council of Ministers since 2009. During the last Cabinet reshuffle in June 2022 he was excluded from the Council of Ministers and was made the Speaker. He resigned from the post of Speaker on May 12 last.Sarada Naik, a three time BJD MLA from Rourkela was elected to the state Assembly in 2004, 2009 and 2019. He held the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2012 in the Naveen Patnaik government.
Sudam Marndi started his political career as a candidate of JMM and elected to the state Assembly twice and once to Lok Sabha. Later he Joined BJD and elected to state Assembly twice in 2014 and 2019 from Bangiriposi Assembly constituency in Mayurbhanja district as a BJD candidate.He was a Minister of state from 2014 to 17 in the Naveen Patnaik government and was the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister with cabinet rank in 2019. He was dropped from the Ministry during cabinet reshuffle in June 2022.Political analysts said all the three were inducted into the Council of Ministers to strengthen the party organisation in three districts—Mayurbhanj, Ganjam and Sundergarha keeping in view the 2024 general election.