Mohan Majhi sworn in as 15th CM of Odisha, 15 others take oath as ministers

PM Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh; 9 CM, including Yogi Adityanath, grace occasion

New CM opens secretariat for journalists after 4 years’ of restriction

By Sukant Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, June 12:  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and noted tribal leader Mohan Charan Majhi was on Wednesday sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Odisha.

Amidst loud cheers by tens of thousands of supporters and party workers, the Chief Minister Majhi was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Raghubar Das here at the Janata Maidan at 5.10 pm.

Apart from Majhi, two Deputy Chief ministers, eight cabinet ministers and five ministers of state (independent charge) were administered oaths of office.

The two Deputy Chief Ministers are Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo and Prabhati Parida.  tHE

The legislators who were inducted into the Cabinet include Suresh Pujari, Rabi Narayan Naik, Nityanand Gond, Krushna Chandra Patra, Prithviraj Harichandan, Mukesh Mahaling, Bibhuti Bhusan Jena and Krushna Chandrra Mahapatra.

Similarly, those who were administered oath of office as Ministers of State (MoS) are Ganesh Ram Singkhuntia, Suryabanshi Suraj, Pradeep Bala Samanta, Gokulananda Mallik and Sampad Chandra Swain.

Five-time Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik graced the swearing-in-ceremony.

Sources said senior BJP leader and Ranpur MLA Surama Padhy is most likely to be elected as the new Speaker of Odisha Assembly.

Dressed in his characteristic white robes with a royal flue half jacket, Majhi walked over to and sought the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, , BJP national president JP Nadda and a few other top leaders of the party.

Before taking oath as the new CM, Majhi paid respect to the great Odia leaders who in the past played a crucial role in the formation of Odisha as a separate state on the basis of its language.

As many nine chief ministers, including Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh and Himant Biswa Sarma of Assam, of BJP-ruled states joined the oath-taking ceremony.

The CM will hold his first Cabinet meeting later in the evening today where he is expected to announce some crucial decisions.

Soon after the swearing-in ceremony, the new CM announced the reopening of the state secretariat after a period of four years. The previous Naveen Patnaik government has banned the entry of journalists to the state secretariat in 2020 in the pretext of the Convid-19 crisis.