All Ministers of Naveen Patnaik govt. tender resignation en-masse

The resignations were forwarded to Governor and the new ministers likely to take oath on Sunday

All ministers of the Naveen Patnaik Government tendered their resignation en masse and the resignation papers were forwarded to Governor Ganeshi Lal for his acceptance on Saturday.

The new set of ministers is scheduled to take oath in Raj Bhawan on Sunday. This is for the first time that all ministers were asked to put in their papers in the State at one go.

Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro also resigned from his post which fuelled speculations that he might be taken in as a Minister in the Sunday’s reshuffle.

While some Ministers are likely to be retained in the new cabinet, controversial and non-performing ministers will be dropped.

“Some MLAs have already received calls about their new assignments. They have been asked to remain present in Capital city of Bhubaneswar,” said senior BJD leaders.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will carry out the cabinet reshuffle for the first time in his fifth term. The BJD had registered landslide victory in State election 2019 by winning 112 seats in the 147-member assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress had to content 23 and nine seats respectively.

After registering victory in Brajarajnagar bye-election on Friday, the BJD’s seat strength in the assembly has gone up to 113. The regional party had won all the bypolls held after 2019 election retaining Bijepur, Tirtol, Pipili and Brajarajnagar assembly seats and snatching Balasore Sadar from the BJP.