Bhubaneswar, May 6: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today dropped 10 ministers from his 20-member council and will induct 11 ministers, including six new faces, tomorrow.

Naveen seems to have reposed his confidence in party veterans and tried not to be over-dependant on the young. Niranjan Pujari, Surya Naryan Patro, Prafulla Samal, Pratap Jena and Maheswar Mohanty are being brought back into the ministry for the second time.

Six cabinet ministers and five ministers of state will be sworn in tomorrow at 9.10am at Raj Bhavan, official sources said. The other cabinet minister is newcomer Sashi Bhushan Behera.

Naveen will elevate steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallick and commerce and transport minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi to the status of cabinet. The new ministers of state are Sushant Singh, Nrushinga Sahu, Bijay Nayak, Chandra Sarathi Behera, son of former minister Kalandi Charan Behera, and BJD chief whip Ananta Narayan Das.

Naveen today told some ministers to step down and called up those who would be sworn in tomorrow. He told reporters: "I am grateful to a number of ministers, who have resigned voluntarily to work for the party. All of us in the party are very grateful to them."

Party sources said six ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister "voluntarily", while Naveen had asked four to do so.

MSME minister Jogendra Behera said: "The chief minister called me at 9.30am and asked me to send the resignation to his principal secretary."

While carrying out the rejig, Naveen has taken two things into consideration - performance of the ministers during the rural polls in their respective districts and also the government's sullied image in the past two-and-a-half years.

Sources said the axe fell on housing and urban development minister Pushpendra Singh Deo, sports minister Sudam Marandi and school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra as the party had failed to put up a good performance in their respective areas in the last rural polls. In Kalahandi and Mayaurbhanj districts, represented by Singh Deo and Marandi, respectively, the BJD was completely routed by the BJP. Though Mishra had proved himself as a successful minister by organising the Odisha Conclave, he failed to check the BJP ingress in his constituency Badambada-Narasinghapur.

Though food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma and panchayati raj and law minister Arun Sahu had proved to be good organisers in the past, the Opposition continued to slam the Naveen Patnaik government for Das Burma's alleged involvement in the money deposit collection scam and Sahu's failure to handle the Nabakalebar and last year's car festival smoothly. He was also embroiled in a controversy for allegedly providing protection to an official who had cheated the government.

Das Bruma had come under criticism after governor S.C. Jamir had returned the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (Amendment) Bill for reconsideration. The governor had taken exception to the provision in the bill for the minister becoming the pro-chancellor of BPUT.

Though it is being said that higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi stepped down to work for the party, he had landed in a controversy after the Ravenshaw University vice-chancellor had criticised his department alleging political interference.

Similarly, the MSME minister Jogendra Behera and tribal development minister Lal Bihari Himirika failed to put up a good show in their respective districts Balangir and Raygada. <>Their performance as ministers had also raised eyebrows.Though no allegations had been made against energy minister Pranab Prakash Das and finance minister Pradeep Amat, they have also quit. Das said: "Naveen has confidence in me. Earlier, he had made me a minister and now he has entrusted me with party work."

Amat stepped down amidst speculations that he would be sworn in as the new Assembly Speaker, the post vacated by Pujari yesterday.

Sources said Naveen had inducted Pujari and Bhattli MLA Sushant Singh to checkmate the BJP in west Odisha. He also elevated Prafulla Mallick to the cabinet status and roped in Nrusingha Sahu to counter Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan's influence in and around Dhenkanal district.

Naveen has included Prafulla Samal from Bhadrak in his revamped ministry, which also has Bijayshree Routray from the district.