He does not know clear Odia. His childhood and adolescence mostly remained untouched by Odia milieu. Politics was something he avoided for a long part of his life. And when he dabbled in it, he left behind him more of foes than friends, who are seething in anger and still looking for chances to avenge on him. Needless to say, he is the most powerful, acceptable and indisputably unchallengeable leader in Odisha and one of the few Odia leaders who made their presence felt in national politics. He is none other than Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik.
The last one and a half decades of Patnaik’s political career has never seen any downs. Since the beginning, hardly has he tolerated attempt of any of his party colleagues to eclipse him. Those who did were virtually hunted down. So much is the love of the people of Odisha for his father and former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik that they did not accept anyone trying to push Naveen to edge. The stalwarts who created a political front after the demise of Biju to cash in on sympathy wave and brought in Naveen to politics for enjoying more legitimacy and credibility later tried to utilise the newcomer as a means to their end. And when they were shown the door, people were rather happy.
The last one who suffered a satanic fall was Pyarimohan Mohapatra. Patnaik very cleverly dealt with the man who was almost projecting him as a messiah in the BJD and godfather of Patnaik. He had grown highly powerful by successfully utilising his proximity with Patnaik and his family members and was not giving Patnaik a space to take credit for anything. The coup brought down the shutters on the eventful career of Mohapatra. He had the most insulting exit from the BJD.
After Mohapatra’s removal, Patnaik did not allow anybody to be close to him so as to use him as a means to exercise dominance over others or pose a challenge to him. Since Mohapatra’s fall, Patnaik has risen up and continues to be shining so much so that now BJD has vote only in his name. Veritably, Patnaik has established his own identity as a charismatic leader minus the sparkle of his father. In fact, he has grown in his stature more than his father’s.
The fast industrialisation and development that the State has witnessed in the last 14 years of his rule can be attributed to Patnaik’s growing stature and popularity. From people in the industry and service sectors to common people, daily wagers and firm labourers etc, Patnaik enjoys somewhat an acceptability in them.
If Patnaik has been behind the largest industrial resurgence and economic growth in the State, he too is to be blamed for the biggest scams and scandals like the mining and the chit fund scams and scores of rape, murder and harassment cases against women. The longest serving Chief Minister carries the heaviest baggage of praises and blames.
Still he is a hero thanks to scores of mega projects, roads, top hospitals, educational institutions, village infrastructure, 108 ambulances, and last but not the least, the Rs1-a-kg rice scheme. Patnaik has launched a large number of populist schemes whose benefit directly accrues to the poor and downtrodden.
As a man and a politician Patnaik has maintained certain degree of distinctness. His pronunciation of Odia draws more fun and sympathy than scorn from the public. His innocent look, smile and simplicity of sporting in a white paijama and trouser and a pair of Kanpur leather shoes have endeared him to the public. His faultless and terse English, whenever he makes a statement to the Press on an issue, also adds to his advantage. Be it a normal or tense situation, he always has a fixed gesture. Seldom has anyone seen him to be losing his cool.
Patnaik’s two most important weapons have been development and Odia pride. All through his tenure he has successfully waged a war against the Centre for neglecting Odisha and not granting the special category status to the State. His chorus has never lost its strength even if he has been countered by the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to be making a fuss.
Naveen Patnaik’s astuteness as a heavyweight and game player is known the way he has been poaching leaders of other parties when the elections are inching closer. Even, his strong adversaries are coming near him for a rapprochement and joining his party. His strength is the BJD’s. The party is now synonymous with the individual.