BJD Forms 'Shadow Cabinet' To Keep An Eye On Odisha Government's Performance

Bhubaneswar: To keep an eye on the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Odisha Government, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has formed a group of 50 elected members who will closely examine the performance of different departments of the Odisha government.

In its announcement, BJD said that the opposition's role is to play the role of a “watchdog”. 

"Biju Janata Dal, as the opposition party, will keep a close watch on the performance of various departments of the state government. For this, the leader of the opposition Mr. @Naveen_OdishaBiju Janata Dal has given responsibility to 50 elected members as per the schedule below," the party said in a post on X.

The party mentioned that Ranendra Pratap Swain Athagarh has been allotted the Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Pramila Mallik Binjharpur has been allotted Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Parliamentary Affairs Department, Badri Narayan Patra Ghasipura has been allotted the Department of Women & Child Development.

Going United Kingdom’s way

In the UK, there is a Shadow Cabinet which consists of a team of senior spokespeople chosen by the Leader of the Opposition to mirror the Cabinet in Government. Each member of the shadow cabinet is appointed to lead on a specific policy area for their party and to question and challenge their counterpart in the Cabinet. 

Earlier, the BJD appointed state-level and national-level spokespersons. 14 leaders including Prasanna Acharya, Pramila Mallick and Debi Mishra were appointed as state-level spokespersons; Santrupt Misra and Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo have been appointed as national spokespersons. 

The Biju Janata Dala, which has ruled Odisha since 1997, lost to the BJP, breaking the 24-year-old reign of Naveen Patnaik as the Chief Minister.