Patnaik: From political novice to four-time chief minister

After winning 117 of the 147 assembly seats and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, the BJD chief was sworn in as CM on Wednesday, becoming the first in the state to be sworn in for the fourth straight year.

Once considered a political novice and a reluctant inheritor of Biju Patnaik’s mantle in 1997, Naveen Patnaik has turned master strategist to become the first in Odisha to become chief minister for the fourth consecutive time.

Unfazed by a series of scams, including mining and chit fund scandals and charges of irregularities in the rural job scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Patnaik steered the Biju Janata Dal to a landslide victory in the assembly and Lok Sabha polls as the party won 117 of the 147 assembly seats and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

Patnaik, 67, effectively tackled the party’s internal affairs and countered the opposition onslaught to raise the popularity of BJD in every successive election.

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Despite being chief of a regional party, Patnaik’s name was at one point even mooted by many even for the prime ministerial job, but the BJD supremo kept a low profile, largely confining himself to state politics.

Patnaik was inducted into politics after his father’s death in 1997. He became a Lok Sabha member winning the by-election from Aska. A year later, Naveen floated the Biju Janata Dal, a regional party named after his father, and entered into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party to become a cabinet minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998. 

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In 2000, when the BJD-BJP alliance was voted back to power in Odisha, Patnaik was made chief minister. The combine retained power after 2004. However, ties between the BJD and BJP soured in the aftermath of Kandhamal riots in 2008 and Patnaik severed the alliance with the saffron party on the eve of the 2009 general elections.

The move not only strengthened Naveen’s secular credentials, but also propelled the BJD’s poll prospects in 2009 when it won 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 103 of the 147 seats in the Odisha assembly.

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Since 2009, Patnaik’s party witnessed many upheavals, including an alleged coup bid, but the BJD supremo overcame all adversities to finally register an unprecedented record victory this time as Odisha remained untouched by the Narendra Modi wave that swept the country.

He demonstrated his ability to skilfully handle adverse situations when he nipped in the bud an alleged coup to topple his government two years ago when he was on a visit abroad.

A writer, who also dabbled in arts after completing his education, Patnaik was a founder-member of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.