Bhubaneswar: Three MPs from Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Jual Oram have been inducted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet 3.0.
Shri Modi took oath as the Prime Minister of India at 7:15 pm in Rashtrapati Bhavan. The three leaders elected from Odisha also take oath as Cabinet Ministers. While Shri Pradhan and Shri Oram have been elected to Lok Sabha in this election, Shri Vaishnaw, an Odisha cadre former IAS officer, is a member of the Upper House of the Parliament since July 2019.
It is worth noting that Shri Pradhan, who has been elected to Lok Sabha from Sambalpur constituency, has held different portfolios in the first and second term of Narendra Modi government. He held important ministries like Petroleum & Natural Gas, Steel, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Education.
Similarly, Shri Vaishnaw held the crucial Railway, Communication, and Electronics & IT berth in the Modi Cabinet during his second term.
Five-time MP Jual Oram has served as India’s first Tribal Affairs Minister under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. He was given the same portfolio in Modi’s first term. It is very likely that he will again get the same portfolio.
Though names of some other senior BJP leaders and MPs like Aparajita Sarangi, Baijayant Panda and Rudranarayan Pany were doing rounds for the central ministry, no one has got a call from the Prime Minister’s office for the oath taking ceremony.
The name of seven-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab is also speculated for the prestigious post of Speaker of Lok Sabha.
With the induction of Shri Pradhan into the Union Cabinet, it has now become clear that Central BJP leadership don’t want to spare him for State-level position or politics.