Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik shows no mercy when it comes to maintain discipline in the party. He has dropped his ministers like flies.
Forty four ministers were shown door during his 17 years regime.The latest is the dismissal of Dr. Damodar Rout, state agriculture minister.
Naveen in his first tenure between 2000 and 2004 had dismissed six ministers–Kamala Das, Prashant Nanda, Nalinikant Mohanty, Amar Prasad Satpathy, Debi Prasad Mishra and AP Singh.
The then finance minister, Ramakrishna Patnaik, had resigned protesting against his shifting to Agriculture ministry.
Patnaik had sacked 14 ministers for their anti-party activities in his second tenure from 2004-09.
Following the coup attempt by his close aide Pyari Mohan Mohapatra in Many 2012, Naveen dropped five ministers — Prafulla Ghadei, Prafulla Samal, Pratap Jena, Pushpendra Singhdeo, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak for their loyality towards the dissident BJD leader.
Though shown doors, leaders like Debi Prasad Mishra, Damodar Rout, Bijayashree Routray, Rabinaryan Nanda, Prtap Jena, Pradeep Maharathi, Maheswar Mohanty, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Pushpendra Singhdeo had returned to his cabinet at one point of time or other.
Naveen, in his latest action against ministers, has dismissed agriculture minister Dr. Damodar Rout. This Rout’s third exit from the Naveen cabinet in 17 years.
