The longest-serving Chief Minister is Pawan Kumar Chamling who remained boss of Arunachal Pradesh for 24 years, 5 months and 5 days, followed by Jyoti Basu, who ruled West Bengal for 23 years 4 months 7 days. They are all gone by now. But Naveen Patnaik of Odisha is poised to smash all those records as he is entering his fifth glorious term.
No one knows how he wins massively every successive election so comfortably. Chamling’s Arunachal is a small hilly State with a tribal community not too conscious of subtle political happenings. West Bengal under Basu was the bastion of a Marxist regime that was brazenly illiberal and totalitarian in nature and the cadres forced votes out of the helpless masses.
But Naveen has been gaining people’s mandate in an ascending order, a rare phenomenon in the modern times. The anti-incumbency factor that keeps upsetting regimes every now and then is an alien perception among Odias with regard to Naveen winning political battles magically.
All leading pollsters failed in predictions for the 2019 election outcomes. They had given Modi a maximum 272 and Naveen 85-95 seats. Only one lesser-known agency, Today’s Chanakya, had predicted accurately. And it had also forecast the last UP results just too correctly.
It’s not untrue that the Modi-Shah duo was sceptical about their fate as a number of saffron stalwarts had abandoned the party one by one, citing gross displeasure over the masterminds' dictatorial ways of choosing candidates and devising poll strategies. It was also believed that the NDA would just scrape through barely with a simple majority falling short of the magic number.
Accordingly, Modi had clandestinely struck deals with powerful regional outfits for post-poll support in Parliament.
But the whole world was sure Naveen would return for a fifth stint without much difficulty. The Pulwama drama, not crystal clear even today, had moved the masses in favour of Modi as a ‘super warrior' PM. The masses of the country believed it’s only Modi who could teach Pakistan a fitting lesson by destroying terror training camps quite on the Pakistani soil. The Pulwama episode may be a master bluff as the watchful international outfits have not yet fully endorsed the NDA claim, nor have they conclusively denied that.
All the same, that some good acts of valour did occur cannot be denied; but the claim only seems to have been overblown. However, that worked like magic for Modi. Votes came pouring in.
Modi literally swept all constituencies pan India except in Odisha. Naveen retained the glory with 12 Lok Sabha seats and a whopping 112 in the Assembly. There was prediction by poll masters that the BJP would eat into 15 Lok Sabha berths and proportionally into the Assembly number. That never happened. The two saffron masterminds could never figure out that the Odisha BJP was only an abstract idea, not a concrete outfit with fitness to fight the mighty BJD.
The eight seats that they lapped up was because Odisha voters knew it was Modi’s turn at the Centre yet again as the principal opponent Congress had spoilt all its prospects due to stupid talk and internal distrust among senior members. Most literate Congress leaders too disapproved Rahul’s headless harangues against Modi.
Priyanka remained just a ‘shop mannequin' and her defamed husband Robert Vadra appeared before the voters' eyes when they were ready to press the choice button. The Congress in Odisha today is a lowly-rated entity as the local boss has not been able to provide right leadership.
All the same, Naveen's stunning victory may be attributed to his clean image and his distrust in the political class. The people of Odisha, like elsewhere in India, have long since developed a bitter hatred for the political biggies because they keep abusing power and get away scot-free. From day one, Naveen has tightened the ropes around the necks of most of the political rogues who are known as sure winners by guile.
Fortunately, Naveen has been able to identify a cohesive band of highly intelligent and pro-poor bureaucrats who keep providing him with critical information and best ways to tackle issues. Not surprisingly, Naveen trusts this skilled and knowledgeable group of bureaucrats more than politicians, most of whom are ignorant of people’s issues and the rulebook.
The smart bureaucrats, as aides and advisors, are keenly watchful of ground realities to the last square foot and are able to organise instant help to people at troubled locations.
No wonder, the rescue and restoration work after the most severe summer cyclone Fani caused immeasurable devastation to coastal Odisha has been hailed as uniquely magnificent.
Reconstruction workers rushed in from all regions of the country and expressed immense soul-satisfaction for having been of use to a State which had done wonders during disasters in their provinces.
Odisha people, it seems, will keep bringing the BJD back to power as long as Naveen is boss.
Though no one is sure who is going to succeed Naveen, it’s nearly made clear by Naveen himself that the people will chose his successor and it will never be a dynastic blunder. The Congress has suffered horribly because of family politics. Naveen shall not commit that mistake ever.
Team Modi has become much wiser after the unexpected BJP victory. The Prime Minister has dealt some masterstrokes to win people’s hearts. He has made Pratap Sarangi, a first-time parliamentarian from Odisha, a Minister.
Sarangi won by an appreciable margin by defeating an industrialist. People love such moves by the executive all over the world. Modi has gained bigger respect for this.
Now to some hurting development which perhaps has missed Modi’s notice: India’s first Lokpal Justice PC Ghose wants an upgradation of his official car from the Rs 9 lakh Maruti Ciaz to an expensive Toyota Camry costing Rs 40 lakh.
Ghose says he is equivalent to a Supreme Court judge; the Ciaz is given to ordinary Secretary-level officials. Other members of the anti-corruption body, taking cue from the boss, are now demanding big pay and perks, including bungalows for being equivalent to serving High Court judges.
Quite at the beginning, the officials of the principal anti-corruption outfit of the country have started behaving in a manner that indicates that the functionaries expected to nab corrupt public officials, particularly of the Executive, are crazy about self benefits as are accorded to top officials in very affluent countries without strong ethical standards.
People must take note of this fact and begin to agitate from now, or else the very purpose of having a Lokpal will be badly defeated.
Lastly what must be known specifically is the fact that the Fani-affected Kalinga Stadium is back to fitness to hold the FIH hockey tournament.
The credit has to be given to the Principal Secretary Sports, the IDCO boss and many other State functionaries who forgot sleep and hunger to turn the prestigious stadium perfectly fit to hold the big international sports event.
The entire sports world had written off the Kalinga Stadium for the big show. But the Odisha officials proved they can achieve the impossible like they did during the Asian Athletic show a couple of years ago as at the last moment Jharkhand had chickened out. That is the magic of Odisha!