Naveen Patnaik sworn in as Orissa Chief Minister

BHUBANESWAR: Naveen Patnaik was on Thursday sworn in as Orissa Chief Minister for the third consecutive term, heading a 21-member ministry of BJD, the first ever regional party to come to power on its own in the state.

Patnaik, 62, who was administered the oath of office by Governor M C Bhandare, has retained six from the outgoing Cabinet and brought in two new faces while three others have been earlier ministers in his government.

BJD, which parted ways with BJP-led NDA in March this year abruptly ending its 11-year alliance, went it alone in both the parliamentary and assembly elections and steered the party to a landslide win bagging 103 of the 147 assembly seats and 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

Eleven of the ministers are of cabinet rank, while nine are ministers of state.

Those retained in Cabinet are Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, Ananga Udaya Singh Deo, Surya Narayan Patra, Raghunath Mohanty, Pramila Mallick and Debi Prasad Mishra. Damodar Rout, Prafulla Samal and Prasanna Acharya have been ministers earlier while Bikram Keshari Arukh and Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha are first timers.

Of the ministers of state, except Sanjib Sahu, the others -- Sarada Prasad Nayak, Pushpendra Singh Deo, Ramesh Majhi, Pratap Jena, Prabin Chandra Bhanja Deo, Atanu Sabyasachi, Badrinarayan Patra and Anjali Behera are new entrants.