Ranendra Pratap Swain Takes Oath As Pro-Tem Speaker Of Odisha Assembly; Portfolios Of Ministers Likely To Be Announced Today

Bhubaneswar: Governor Raghubar Das administered the oath of office to 8-time BJD MLA from Athagarh Ranendra Pratap Swain as pro-tem Speaker of 17th Odisha Legislative Assembly at Raj Bhavan here on Friday.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi attended the ceremony.

The pro-tem Speaker is appointed to act as the temporary Speaker when a new legislative session begins and till a full-time Speaker is elected. The newly-elected MLAs are scheduled to take oath on June 18 and 19. The election for the full-time Speaker will be held on June 20. “I will discharge by duties and responsibilities till then,” Swain said.

Sources indicate that senior BJP leader Surama Padhy is the front-runner for the Speaker position.

The BJP formed the government in Odisha by securing 78 out of the 147 seats in the Assembly. Majhi along with two Deputy Chief Ministers, eight Cabinet ministers and five Ministers of State with independent charge took oath at a grand swearing-in ceremony in Janata Maidan on Wednesday, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with several Union Ministers and the Chief Ministers of nine BJP-ruled states.

Sources further said that allocation of portfolios among the 2 deputy chief minister and 13 ministers of the first BJP government headed by Majhi is also likely to be announced later in the day.

Amid the ongoing speculation about who will get which portfolio, BJP leader Prithiviraj Harichandan told reporters that the decision has been taken and the announcement from the Governor office is likely anytime soon.

THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

The 16-member council of ministers, including the CM, has one woman member, three from Scheduled Tribes and two from Scheduled Castes. Among them 16 members are first-time MLAs and no one of them except deputy CM KV Singhdeo has any previous experience of working as a Minister.

The BJP has tried to strike regional balance while picking members for the council of ministers. Largest populous district Ganjam in the southern region, where the BJP won 11 of the total 13 seats despite it being considered a BJD stronghold, got two ministerial berths — one Cabinet (Bibhuti Jena) and a Minister of State with independent charge (Gokula Nanda Mallik).
The southern region also got one more Cabinet berth with the inclusion of Umerkote MLA Nityananda Gond, a tribal from Nabarangpur district.

While KV is from Balangir district in western Odisha, the district got another Cabinet berth with the inclusion of Mukesh Mahaling. Western Odisha, known to be a BJP stronghold, also got two more Cabinet berths — Suresh Pujari (Brajarajnagar) and Rabi Narayan Naik (Kuchinda).

Coastal Odisha from where the party has picked Pravati Parida as deputy CM also found sizeable representation in the Cabinet. Chilka legislator Prithiviraj Harichandan has been inducted as Cabinet minister while Paradip MLA Sampad Chandra Swain took oath as Minister of State (independent charge).

Mayurbhanj district, where the party won all nine MLA seats, got two Ministers. Moroda MLA Krushna Chandra Mohapatra has been given Cabinet berth while Jashipur MLA Ganesh Ramsingh Khuntia given a Minister of State with independent charge berth. Districts like Jajpur and Dhenkanal also got representation in the Ministry.