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Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 (IANS): Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday dropped five ministers and inducted nine in his council ministers.
With this, the number of ministers (including the chief minister) in the state has risen to 21.
The five ministers shown the door were Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Prafulla Ghadai, Puspendra Singhdeo, Pratap Jena and Prafulla Samal. They resigned minutes ahead of the reshuffle.
Their resignations have been forwarded to the governor for acceptance, an official at the chief minister's office told IANS.
The dropped ministers were known loyal to Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra who allegedly tried to oust Patnaik May 29 but failed.
Those inducted in the ministry as cabinet ministers were Damodar Rout, Bijayashree Routray and Kalpataru Das.
The new minister of states are Rabi Narayan Nanda, Pratap Kishor Deb, Arun Sahu, Rajanikanta Singh, Subrat Tarai and Sarojini Hembram.
The new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor M.C. Bhandare at a simple function at Raj Bhaban.
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