By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: Once Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s St Stephens’ Batch mate and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta had written an article titled “ An Enigma Called Patnaik’ which was published in his regular column ‘Usual Suspects’ in The Pioneer after BJD registered an empathic win for 4th times without BJP in 2014.
The BJD was , founded on December 26, 1997, had assumed power in the State on March 5, 2000, after the then BJD-BJP alliance won majority of seats in the Assembly by defeating the Congress and since 2009 , BJD alone fighting and winning all Assembly polls taking the tally to 5.0.
Since Patnaik ventured into politics after the sad demise of Legendary Biju Patnaik in 1997, tested his political fortune from Aska Lok Sabha seat and became Union Minister under Atal Vihari Vajpayee led NDA Government and since 2000, Patnaik has been successfully beating anti-incumbency, marching ahead.
20 years on , Patnaik not only become the longest serving Chief Minister of this eastern Indian State but also he is perhaps only political leader, who never tested defeat till date.
“Win, win and big win, he is in fact, realised what Odisha needs,” added a veteran Journalist in Bhubaneswar. He said Patnaik has the zeal to work hard and so Odisha witnessing many developments in past several years.
In his 5.0 innings, Patnaik formed a new Department called 5T, so far 27 Departments are working under it. The CM had so far dismissed 74 Government officials and gave compulsory retirement to 15 officers from August last year.
The renovation and development works being carried out for Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri, Lord Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Maa Tara Tarini in Berhampur, Maa Samaleshwari in Sambalpur, Lord Baladev Jew in Kendrapara has gone well with the people of Odisha while the recent funding for minority institutions also brought smile among Muslims and other minority communities in the State.
Patnaik expressed gratefulness to the people of Odisha for helping them achieve the feat.
Patnaik took to Twitter to acknowledge the support of the Odias and also the blessings of the Almighty Lord Jagannath.
As the completion of the BJD’s 20-year-rule coincides with the birth anniversary of Biju Patnaik, the party is organising a series of programmes over a period of seven days to mark the occasion.
While the State government is organising different events, the BJD will organise a series of programmes to celebrate the birth anniversary of Naveen Patnaik’s late father after whom the party had been named.
The week-long celebration of Biju Babu’s birth anniversary began from Anand Bhavan in Cuttack where he was born.
