BHUBANESWAR, DECEMBER 9: Orissa Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal on Thursday expanded his three-day-old ministry by inducting 27 ministers including 11 in the Cabinet rank, eight ministers of state with independent charge and eight ministers of state. The strength of the ministry has gone up to 30 after the expansion. Two Cabinet ministers, Basant Kumar Biswal and Jagannath Patnaik were sworn in along with the Chief Minister on December 6.Governor M M Rajendran administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a simple function here on the Raj Bhavan lawns.Talking to newsmen after the swearing-in ceremony, the chief minister said there will be no further expansion of his ministry. Biswal, however, parried a question as to whether he will resign as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president. "I am still the PCC president", he said.Debendra Mansingh, who was minister of state for industry in the Giridhar Gamang ministry, was the only one from the previous ministry not to find a berththis time. Biswal has inducted five new faces including one in the cabinet rank, three ministers of state with independent charge and one minister of state in the ministry. All the five were in JB Patnaik ministry but were dropped by Gamang.Kishore Chandra Patel is the only new Cabinet minister. Other Cabinet ministers sworn in are, Kanhu Charan Lenka, Gajadhar Majhi, Durga Shankar Patnaik, Netranand Mallik, Niranjan Patnaik, Bhagabat Prasad Mahanty, Bhupinder Singh, Sheikh Matlub Ali, Raghunath Patnaik and Saraswati Hembrum.Three new ministers of state with independent charge, Amarnath Pradhan, Jaydev Jena and Mohan Nag, were also sworn in. Other ministers of state with independent charge are, Nabin Chandra Narayan Das, Prakash Chandra Debta, Bijaylaxmi Sahu, Suresh Kumar Routray and Haladhar Karjee.Ramakant Mishra who was dropped by Gamang has also made a comeback as a minister of state. The other ministers of state are, Usharani Panda, Ganeswar Behera, Padmalochan Panda, Parama Pujari, PrasadHarichandan, Ripunath Seth and Surendra Singh Bhoi.However, there is no surprise element in the Biswal ministry. Though reluctant he had to take in almost all the ministers in the previous Gamang ministry because of pulls and pressures from various factions. Debendra Mansingh was the lone member who got the axe as he was not close to any faction.Sources said the high command did not want any major change in the ministry when the Assembly elections are around the corner.
