Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will reshuffle his Council of Ministers Monday, said a source.
Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at 9.50 am, added the source.
Last week, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash and Labour Minister Srikant Sahu resigned. No appointment was made in place of Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, who was assassinated in January.
Along with the two ministers, Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha also resigned last week.
The Parliamentary Affairs Department was preparing in full swing for the swearing-in ceremony Monday. Invitation cards were being printed and the convention center of Lok Seva Bhawan was being decorated, the sources said.
Patnaik reshuffled his cabinet in June last year.
The Odisha’s Council of Ministers can have 22 ministers, including the chief minister, but has 19 ministers at present.
Prafulla Samal, Debi Prasad Mishra, Amar Prasad Satpathy and Badri Narayan Patra are frontrunners for the speaker’s post.
It is also being speculated that Arukha, a six-time MLA, may be inducted into the cabinet, due to which he was asked to resign. The other probable names are Sushant Singh, Sarada Nayak and Umakanta Samantray.
The possibility of Dipali Das, the daughter of the assassinated minister who won the Jharsuguda bypoll, getting a place in the cabinet could not be discounted by a section of BJD insiders.
PNN & Agencies