Odisha ministers get portfolios, CM Majhi keeps home dept among others

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], June 15 (ANI): Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi allocated portfolios to his ministers on Saturday.
Majhi was sworn in as chief minister on June 12. While CM Majhi has kept Home, General Administration and Public Grievances, Information and Public Relations, Water Resources, Planning, and Convergence, his deputy Kanak Vardhan Singh Dev has been allocated Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment and Energy Department.
Another deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida has been given the charge of Women and Child Development, Mission Shakti, and Tourism department.
Cabinet minister Suresh Pujari has taken charge of Revenue and Disaster Management; Rabi Narayan Naik has been allocated Rural Development, and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water.
The Department of School and Mass Education has been handed over to cabinet minister Nityanand Gond.
Cabinet Minister Mukesh Mahaling has taken charge of the Health and Family Welfare Department and Parliamentary Affairs along with Electronics and Information Technology.
Cabinet minister Prithviraj Harichandan will now handle the reins of the Law, Works and Excise Department. Krushna Chandra Patra has been allocated the Department of Food Suppliers and Consumer Welfare along with Science and Technology.
The allocation of the portfolios was done on the advice of the Chief Minister.
A total of eight ministers and five Ministers of State were sworn in.
Pravati Parida has become the first woman deputy chief minister of the state.
This is the first BJP government in Odisha after its emphatic performance in the recently concluded assembly polls, after it defeated the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), bringing an end to the latter's 24-year-old reign.
The 52-year-old belonging to the Santali tribe hails from the state's Keonjhar district. He was elected leader of the BJP legislature party in Odisha on Tuesday.
Beginning his career as a sarpanch from 1997-2000, Majhi was elected to the state assembly for the first time in 2000 from Keonjhar. He was re-elected in 2004. From 2005 to 09, he was the government deputy chief whip in the BJD-BJP coalition government. He was again elected as an MLA in 2019. In the recent polls, Majhi retained the seat by defeating BJD's Mina Majhi by 11,577 votes.
The BJP won 78 of 147 seats in the Odisha assembly polls. (ANI)