Naveen sacks 33 ministers in 12 years as Odisha Chief Minister

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen

Patnaik has sacked 33 ministers during the last 12 years in

office while only two resigned.Only four of the 35 ministers sacked were able to make a

come back. They were Debi Prasad Mishra (now Agriculture

minister), Damodar Rout (sacked twice and now Health miister),

Bijayshree Routray (now Forest and Environment minister) and

Rabinarayan Nanda (now School and Mass Education minister).The latest ouster took place on August 2 when Patnaik

sacked five ministers, including Finance Minister Prafulla

Ghadai and Energy Minister Atanu S Nayak. Patnaik dropped five

ministers ahead of the ministry expansion.The other ministers who were dropped before the ministry

expansion were Prafulla Samal, Pratap Jena and Pushpendra

Singhdeo.Patnaik sacked six ministers during his first stint as

chief minister from 2000 to 2004 and the then Agriculture

Minister Ramakrushna Patnaik had resigned after he was shifted

from the Finance department.A total of seven ministers quit the ministry during Patnaik's first innings.The six others who were dropped from the ministery were

Kamala Das, Prashant Nanda (BJP), Nalinikanta Mohanty, Amar

Satpathy, Debi Prasad Mishra and A P Singh.Similarly, during his second tenure as chief minister

from 2004-2009, Patnaik sacked 14 ministers on different

grounds.Patnaik had in his third stint since 2009 sacked 14

ministers.They were Pramila Mallick, Pravin Bhanja Deo, Bijay

Ranjan Singh Bariha, Damodar Rout, Pradeep Maharathy, Anjali

Behera, Sanjib Sahu, Sarada Prasad Nayak, Prafulla Ghadai,

Prafulla Samal, Atanu S Nayak and Pushpendra Singhdeo.Former Excise Minister A U Singhdeo had resigned in April

this year following a hooch tragedy in Khurda and Cuttack

district.