Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi allocated portfolios to his ministers on Saturday, following his swearing-in on June 12.
Chief Minister Majhi has retained several key departments, including Home, General Administration and Public Grievances, Information and Public Relations, Water Resources, and Planning and Convergence. Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Dev has been assigned the Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Energy departments.
Another deputy Chief Minister, Pravati Parida, will oversee the Women and Child Development, Mission Shakti, and Tourism departments, becoming the first woman deputy chief minister in the state.
Other cabinet ministers and their portfolios include:
Suresh Pujari: Revenue and Disaster Management
Rabi Narayan Naik: Rural Development, and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water
Nityanand Gond: School and Mass Education
Mukesh Mahaling: Health and Family Welfare, Parliamentary Affairs, and Electronics and Information Technology
Prithviraj Harichandan: Law, Works, and Excise
Krushna Chandra Patra: Food Suppliers and Consumer Welfare, and Science and Technology
The portfolio allocation was done on the advice of Chief Minister Majhi. A total of eight ministers and five Ministers of State were sworn in.
This marks the first BJP-led government in Odisha after a decisive victory in the recent assembly elections, which ended the 24-year reign of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The BJP secured 78 out of 147 seats in the Odisha assembly.
Majhi, a 52-year-old member of the Santali tribe from Keonjhar district, began his political career as a sarpanch from 1997 to 2000. He was first elected to the state assembly in 2000 from Keonjhar and re-elected in 2004. He served as the government deputy chief whip in the BJD-BJP coalition government from 2005 to 2009 and was re-elected as an MLA in 2019. In the recent polls, Majhi retained his seat by defeating BJD’s Mina Majhi by 11,577 votes.
