“With the approval of the Governor Prof. Ganesh LalChief Minister Naveen Patnaik has allocated Health and Family Welfare portfolio to Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari,” a statement from the CMO said.
Pujari, who also holds the charge of the parliamentary affairs department, is a five-time legislator from the BJD, winning elections since the regional party contested assembly elections for the first time in 2000.
The lawyer-turned-politician Pujari is known to be soft spoken and down to earth. A native of Sonepur district, he is one of the senior politicians in western Odisha who has never faced an electoral defeat.
Pujari (62), was elected twice from Binika in 2000 and 2004 and from Sonpur in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
Meanwhile, rich tributes were paid to Naba at his official residence in Bhubaneswar besides his home in Jharsuguda. A heart-wrenching scene was witnessed at Naba’s house as relatives and supporters thronged Jharsuguda To pay tribute to them.
Crime branch sources said the accused, assistant police sub-inspector Gopal Krishna Das, has been kept at an undisclosed location in Sundergarh district and is being interrogated.