MLAs get phone calls to be ministers in Naveen’s team

Bhubaneswar: The council of ministers led by Naveen Patnaik is likely to be a mix of experienced and new faces.

Patnaik is likely to retain few outgoing ministers while inducting some new faces in the new council of ministers, which is scheduled to take the oath of office and secrecy here on Wednesday.

Outgoing ministers Ashok Chandra Panda, Pratap Jena, Sushant Singh, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Prafulla Mallick and Niranjan Pujari are likely to be ministers again. The leaders confirmed that they received phone calls from Naveen Patnaik.

Sameer Dash, Naba Kishore Das, Tukuni Sahu, Padmini Dian, Dibyashankar Mishra, Jagannath Saraka, Jyotiprakash Mishra, Raghunandan Das and Tusharkanti Behera are likely to be first time ministers.  

Besides, some former ministers Ranendra Pratap Swain and Padmanav Behera are likely to be inducted in the council of ministers.