Election Results Update: Days after Naveen Patnaik lost the elections, bureaucrats in the Odisha Chief Minister’s Office filed their papers.
Two days after the BJD’s defeat in the state assembly elections and the end of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year term in office, three officials in the Odisha Chief Minister’s Office tendered their resignations on Thursday, signalling a major purge of the state bureaucracy.
On Thursday, retired IAS officers R Balakrishnan and Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, who were serving as principal advisor for special initiatives and principal advisor in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) respectively, resigned from their posts, along with Manoj Mishra, principal secretary, IT and electronics department. All three officials had been part of the CMO bureaucracy for quite some time.
Their resignations were accepted by the Internal Affairs and Complaints Department from 12 noon on June 5.
Balakrishnan, a 1984 batch IAS officer, was appointed as Principal Advisor (Special Initiatives) with the rank of Principal Secretary to the CMO and was given the responsibility of Special Development Council, Tribal Museum, Craft Museum, presentation to the Culture and Heritage Cabinet, oversight of Odia University and Odia Virtual Academy. Balakrishnan’s appointment drew much criticism given his closeness to former Chief Minister’s Secretary VK Pandian. In August 2019, he was appointed as Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister.
