Naveen Patnaik (; born 16 October 1946) is an Indian politician and writer, who is currently Leader of Opposition in Odisha Legislative Assembly. He served as the 14th Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024.
He is the founding chairperson of the Biju Janata Dal, serving since 1997, and has represented the Hinjili Assembly constituency since 2000. He also served as the Union Minister of Steel and Mines from 1998 to 2000 and as a member of the Lok Sabha from Aska from 1997 to 2000.
Early life
Patnaik was born on 16 October 1946 in an aristocratic Karan family to Biju Patnaik, former Chief Minister of Odisha, and his wife, Gyan Devi.
He was educated at the Welham Boys' School in Dehradun, The Lawrence School, Sanawar and later The Doon School. At Doon, he was a classmate of Sanjay Gandhi and three years junior to Rajiv Gandhi, who later became prime minister of India.
After school, he went to the Kirori Mal College of Delhi University, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Political career
thumb|Naveen Patnaik at the Opening Ceremony Hockey World Cup 2018
After the death of his father Biju Patnaik, leader of the Janata Dal, The new party went into alliance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for 1998 election. The alliance performed well winning 16 out of 21 seats and Naveen Patnaik was selected as the Union Minister for Mines in the cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Chief Minister of Odisha
thumb|[[Sevayat|Sevayats of Lingaraj Temple inviting Naveen Patnaik for the Bhumipujan of Ekamra Prakalpa.]]
In the 2000 Assembly election, BJD won the majority of seats in alliance with the BJP in the Odisha Assembly elections, Patnaik resigned from the Union cabinet and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha. He took office on the 84th birth anniversary of his father.
BJP led NDA lost the general elections in 2004, however, the coalition led by Naveen Patnaik emerged victorious in the state legislative elections and he continued as the Chief Minister. During this tenure, the friction between the ruling partners was getting more and more apparent, especially after the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in the Kandhamal district of Odisha in 2007–2008 and also the active participation of Bajrang Dal in the riots that hit Kandhamal region.
In the run-up to the polls for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly of Odisha elections in 2009, BJD walked out of the NDA after severing ties with the BJP and joined the nascent Third Front constituted mainly by the Left Front and few regional parties. He did it after severely criticizing BJP's involvement in Kandhamal anti-Christian riots during 2008. The BJD won a resounding victory in both the Vidhan Sabha (State Assembly) as well as the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, winning 14 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats and 103 of the 147 assembly seats and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha on 21 May 2009 for the third consecutive term.
Patnaik won a huge victory in both the 2014 Indian general elections and the Legislative Assembly of Odisha elections in 2014. Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal secured 20 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats of Odisha and 117 of the 147 Odisha Vidhan Sabha seats.
In spite of a strong BJP wave across the country, the Biju Janata Dal, under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik won as many as 112 seats out of 146 (polls for 1 was deferred) in the Legislative Assembly of Odisha and 12 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 Indian general elections.
His 24-year tenure is the second longest for a chief minister of any Indian state, after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim.
Odisha Leader of Opposition
The Biju Janata Dal was voted out of power in the 2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly election as the party managed to win 51 seats in Legislative Assembly of Odisha, thus ending Patnaik's 24-year rule in Odisha. Patnaik was himself defeated in Kantabanji constituency by 16,344 votes, marking his first electoral defeat. However, he did win the Hinjili seat with a margin of below 5000 .In Lok Sabha elections, the BJD, for the first time, failed to win any of the seats it contested.
Ministerial Positions
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!#
!Government
!Designation
!Portfolio
! colspan="2" |Tenure
!<small>Constituency</small>
! colspan="2" |Party
|-
! colspan="9" |Government of India
|-
| 1
|Vajpayee II
|Cabinet Minister
|Ministry of Steel &<br/>Ministry of Mines & Minerals
|19 March 1998
|13 October 1999
| rowspan="2" |Aska
|
|-
|2
|Vajpayee III
|Cabinet Minister
|Ministry of Mines & Minerals
|13 October 1999
|4 March 2000
|-
! colspan="9" |Government of Odisha
|-
|3
|Naveen I
|Chief Minister
|Chief Minister Office
|5 March 2000
|15 May 2004
| rowspan="6" |Hinjili
|
|-
|4
|Naveen II
|Chief Minister
|Chief Minister Office
|16 May 2004
|21 May 2009
|-
|5
|Naveen III
|Chief Minister
|Chief Minister Office
|22 May 2009
|20 May 2014
|-
|6
|Naveen IV
|Chief Minister
|Chief Minister Office
|21 May 2014
|28 May 2019
|-
|7
|Naveen V
|Chief Minister
|Chief Minister Office
|29 May 2019
|11 June 2024
|-
|8
| colspan="3" |Leader of Opposition, Odisha Legislative Assembly
|19 June 2024
|Incumbent
|}
Electoral history
Lok Sabha
thumb|Naveen Patnaik with BJD workers at his residence in 2024.
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! <small>Year</small>
! <small>Constituency</small>
! colspan="2"|<small>Party</small>
! <small>Votes</small>
! <small>%</small>
! <small>Opponent</small>
! colspan="2"|<small>Opponent Party</small>
! <small>Opponent Votes</small>
! <small>%</small>
! <small>Result</small>
! <small>Margin</small>
! <small>%</small>
|-
! 1999
| rowspan="2"|Aska
|
| 359,178
| 74.90
| <small>Duti Krushna Panda</small>
|
| 102,442
| 21.36
|
| 256,736
| 53.54
|-
! 1998
| 310,751
| 53.88
| <small>Chandra Sekhar Sahu</small>
|
| 224,540
| 38.93
|
| 86,211
| 14.95
|}
thumb|Naveen Patnaik at the [[Samleswari Temple|Maa Samaleswari Temple, after inaugurating the Samaleswari Area Management and Local Economic Initiatives (SAMALEI) project in 2024.]]
Odisha Legislative Assembly
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! <small>Year</small>
! <small>Constituency</small>
! colspan="2"|<small>Party</small>
! <small>Votes</small>
! <small>%</small>
! <small>Opponent</small>
! colspan="2"|<small>Opponent Party</small>
! <small>Opponent Votes</small>
! <small>%</small>
! <small>Result</small>
! <small>Margin</small>
! <small>%</small>
|-
! rowspan="2"|2024
| Kantabanji
|
| 74,532
| 36.56
| <small>Laxman Bag</small>
|
| 90,876
| 44.57
|
| -16,344
| -8.01
|-
| Hinjili
| 66,459
| 46.85
| <small>Sisir Mishra</small>
| 61,823
| 43.59
|
| 4,636
| 3.26
|-
! rowspan="2"|2019
| Bijepur
| 110,604
| 59.78
| <small>Sanat Kumar Gartia</small>
| 53,482
| 28.91
|
| 57,122
| 30.87
|-
| rowspan="5"|Hinjili
| 94,065
| 66.32
| <small>Pitambar Acharya</small>
| 33,905
| 23.91
|
| 60,160
| 42.41
|-
! 2014
| 89,267
| 73.14
| <small>Sibaram Patra</small>
|
| 12,681
| 10.39
|
| 76,586
| 62.75
|-
! 2009
| 72,942
| 76.04
| <small>Raghaba Parida</small>
| 11,669
| 12.17
|
| 61,273
| 63.87
|-
! 2004
| 62,968
| 72.71
| rowspan="2"|<small>Udayanath Nayak</small>
| 20,326
| 23.47
|
| 42,642
| 49.24
|-
! 2000
| 56,243
| 65.35
| 29,826
| 34.65
|
| 26,417
| 30.7
|}
Criticisms
Patnaik spent most of his early days away from Odisha, so he had problems with writing and speaking fluently in the Odia language. He was the only chief minister of India who did not speak fluently the regional language of his state, and because of this, he faced severe criticism from his opponents. During his tenure, Patnaik had an adequate working knowledge of Odia, and he possessed great mastery over Hindi, French, Punjabi, and English. At rallies, he delivered Odia speeches written in the Roman alphabet.
Personal life
Patnaik is a writer and had spent most of his youth away from both politics and Odisha. However, after his father Biju Patnaik’s demise, he entered politics in 1997 and founded the Biju Janata Dal, named after his father. His mild manner and policies made his party hugely popular in the state. He is also one of the founding members of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. His elder sister was the writer Gita Mehta, who died in 2023.
Accolades
Awards
thumb|Naveen Patnaik receiving Outlook Speakout Award for Best Administrator from former President of India [[Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Arun Jaitley.]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year
! Award
! Conferrer
! Event/Location
|-
| 2013
| United Nations Citation Award
| United Nations
| Odisha State Secretariat
|-
| 2017
| Best Administrator in India
| Pranab Mukherjee
| Outlook India Speakout Awards
|-
| 2018
| Ideal Chief Minister Award
| Pratibha Patil
| 8th Indian Students' Parliament
|-
| 2018
| FIH President's Award
| International Hockey Federation
| 46th FIH Congress
|-
| 2020
| CSI E-Ratna Award
| Computer Society of India
| 53rd CSI Annual Convention
|-
| 2020
| Hero to Animals Award
| PETA
| Odisha, India
|-
| 2022
| Lifetime Achievement Award
| N. V. Ramana
| Capital Foundation National Awards
|}
Recognitions
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;"
! Year
! Recognition
! Organisation
! Category
!
|-
|2018
|rowspan="3"|Most Popular Chief Minister in India
|India Today
|India Today – Mood of the Nation
|
|-
|2020
|Indo-Asian News Service
|IANS–C Voter State of the Nation
|
|-
|2021
|India Today
|India Today – Mood of the Nation
|
|-
|2021
|Best Chief Minister in India
|ABP News
|ABP News–C Voter #DeshKaMood
|
|-
|2022
|rowspan="3"|Most Popular Chief Minister in India
|rowspan="3"|India Today
|rowspan="3"|India Today – Mood of the Nation
|
|-
|2023
|
|-
|2024
|
|-
|2024
|Most Popular Chief Minister in India
|NDTV
|National Popularity Survey
|
|-
|2024
|Best Chief Minister in India
|ABP News
|ABP News–C Voter #DeshKaMood
|
|}
Other recognitions
- In 2013, the United Nations felicitated Naveen by presenting a citation for his government's handling of Cyclone Phailin, which hit Odisha in October 2013. The body also announced that the state's efforts would be highlighted as a model for disaster management programs globally. Naveen was also invited by the international body to attend the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in 2015, which was held in Sendai, Japan, from 14 to 18 March 2015.
- In 2019, the United Nations complimented Naveen for his government's proposal to reserve 33% of seats for women in the National Parliament as well as in the state's Legislative Assembly.
Writings
- A Second Paradise: Indian Courtly Life, 1590-1947 – Published in India, England and US
- A Desert Kingdom: The People of Bikaner – Published in India, England and US
- The Garden of Life: An Introduction to the Healing Plants of India – Published in India, England and US
See also
- List of chief ministers of Odisha
- List of longest-serving Indian chief ministers
- List of prime ministers of India
- List of presidents of India
References
External links
- Notable personalities of Odisha, including Naveen Patnaik, in Orissadiary website
- Notable personalities of Odisha as per the Govt. of Odisha official web site
- Odisha's accidental politician, BBC
- Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website