Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Jual Oram felt so hurt at not being appointed a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that he skipped the oath-taking ceremony on the advice of his wife. Oram, a five-term MP and BJP’s tribal face in Odisha, had served as the Union tribal affairs minister in Modi’s first term. With the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally in Odisha rising from just one seat in 2014 to eight in the recently concluded general elections, it was widely expected that the MP from Sundargarh would be included in the council of ministers in the NDA-II government. “I felt hurt. I am also a human being with blood and flesh,” said Oram in an address at a civic felicitation programme at Rourkela. “I was told by many that my name was being discussed and that it was everywhere in the media. I felt that I was going to get it, but somehow did not. I had gone (to New Delhi) with my wife and I asked her if we should attend the oath-taking ceremony. She did not want to go, saying she felt unwell. So, we both stayed back,” he said in a candid confession. Oram, who is now being considered for the Lok Sabha Speaker’s post, was given a rousing welcome by the people of Rourkela upon his first visit to the city after becoming MP for the fifth term. He had skipped a core committee meeting of the state BJP in Bhubaneswar last week as he was reportedly unhappy over not being given a cabinet berth.