BHUBANESWAR: Biju Janata Dal Supremo and Chief minister-designate Naveen Patnaik is set to take oath as Odisha chief minister on Wednesday. Patnaik is set to take oath as chief minister of Odisha for the fifth time in a row. A 20-member Council of Ministers will swear-in with Patnaik today. The 72-year-old chief minister-designate is one of the longest-serving chief ministers in the country.

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Voting for 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 seats in the Odisha Legislative Assembly were held simultaneously. Patnaik managed to ward off anti-incumbency and massive campaigning by the BJP to help his party get a majority in Odisha Assembly. 

It is expected that Patnaik's swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to be held at 10.30 am at the Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar. For his part, Patnaik has invited PM Narendra Modi and other political leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Along with Patnaik, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Bikram Keshari Arukha, Naba Kishore Das, Pratap Jena, Prafulla Kumar Mallick, Niranjan Pujari, Sudam Marndi, Susanta Singh, Tukuni Sahu, Arun Kumar Sahoo and Padmanav Behera will also take oath as state Cabinet ministers, while Ashok Chandra Panda, Samir Ranjan Dash, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Dibya Shankar Mishra, Premananda Nayak, Raghunandan Das, Padmini Dian, Tusharkanti Behera and Jagannath Saraka will swear-in as ministers of state, ANI reported.

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