 "Naveen Patnaik, Naveen, Raghubar Das, Raghubar")
The 2024 Assembly election results in Odisha marked the end of an era as Naveen Patnaik, one of India’s most influential regional leaders, tendered his resignation to the state governor, Raghubar Das, at the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar today.
This comes after his party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), managed to secure only about 50 seats, falling significantly short of the majority mark of 74 seats in the 147-member Assembly.
For the past 24 years, Odisha and Naveen Patnaik have been almost synonymous. Often referred to as Naveen babu, Patnaik made a surprising debut in state politics with the BJD, a party named after his father, former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
With a tenure spanning 24 years and 91 days, Patnaik’s leadership was the second-longest for a chief minister in India, following Sikkim’s Pawan Chamling.
Born on October 16, 1946, to Biju Patnaik and Gyan Patnaik, Naveen Patnaik completed his early education at St Joseph’s Convent in Cuttack, later attending Welham Boys’ School in Dehradun and The Doon School. He pursued a bachelor’s degree in arts at Delhi University, known for his interest in painting, history, and culture.
Beyond politics, Patnaik briefly ventured into Hollywood, appearing in the 1988 film The Deceivers, directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Pierce Brosnan.
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Naveen Patnaik’s entry into Odisha politics
Despite his family’s political legacy, Naveen Patnaik initially avoided politics. However, following his father’s death in 1997, he changed his course. In December of that year, followers of Biju Patnaik from the then Janata Dal formed the Biju Janata Dal. Naveen Patnaik, previously unknown in Odisha’s political arena, made a surprising entry and took charge of the party.
He won the 1998 Lok Sabha bypoll from his father’s Aska seat. In the 2000 Assembly elections, the BJD, in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), secured a majority, leading Patnaik to resign from the Union Cabinet and become the chief minister.
The subsequent years saw the consolidation of BJD’s dominance in Odisha, a state previously dominated by the Congress party.
In the 2019 state polls, the BJD won 112 out of 146 Assembly seats, securing Patnaik an unprecedented fifth consecutive term as chief minister.
Naveen Patnaik’s rise in Odisha politics
Naveen Patnaik’s political journey in Odisha is marked by remarkable longevity and success, achieved despite his lack of fluency in the local language, Odia.
Raised and educated outside the state, Patnaik is known for his soft-spoken nature yet firm governance, with little tolerance for dissent and corruption. While some credit him for improving the state’s infrastructure and economy, others have criticised his governance style as undemocratic. Over his two-decade rule, several welfare schemes for women, senior citizens, and youth helped solidify BJD’s repeated electoral success.
As the BJP prepares to form the government in Odisha with a clear majority, the future course of action for Naveen Patnaik will be closely watched in the coming days.
