Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik turned 77 on Sunday. He has decided not to celebrate his birthday on Sunday as he is embarking on a two-day visit to Hyderabad. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen was born on October 16, 1946, in Cuttack. He is the son of the legendary Biju Patnaik, former Chief Minister of Odisha. After schooling in Dehradun, Naveen graduated in Arts from Delhi University. Before entering politics, he pursued his passion as a writer and lived abroad after completing his education. However, the demise of Biju in 1997 took a turn in his life and he had to take over the reins.
Naveen Patnaik is a writer and for the most part of his youth been away from both politics and Odisha, but after his father Biju Patnaik's demise, he entered politics in 1997 and a year later founded the Biju Janata Dal, named after Biju Patnaik, which won the elections with the BJP as its ally and formed the government in which Patnaik became Chief Minister.
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His mild mannerism, "stand against corruption" and "pro-poor policies" have resulted in the development of a huge support base in Odisha, which has voted him to power in the last five consecutive terms. Like his father, he has managed to control the bureaucracy and transformed it into a machine for the development of the state.
His spartan personal lifestyle and detachment from material possessions have been liked by the people of the state. He is also one of the founding members of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. His elder sister is the writer Gita Mehta.
After the death of his father Biju Patnaik, leader of the Janata Dal, he was elected as a member of the 11th Lok Sabha in the by-election from the Aska Parliamentary constituency in Odisha. He was a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Steel & Mines, a Member of the Standing Committee on Commerce, and a Member Library Committee of Parliament. In 1997, the Janata Dal split and Naveen Patnaik founded the Biju Janata Dal, which in alliance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance performed well and Naveen Patnaik was selected as the Union Minister for Mines in the Cabinet of AB Vajpayee.
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The Naveen-led government also launched many welfare schemes for poverty alleviation in the state. As a result, Naveen Patnaik’s coalition government in 2004 was more successful than in 2000. The rival Congress lost by a bigger margin and Naveen became the Chief Minister of Odisha for the second time in a row.
However, before the 2009 assembly elections, the BJD parted ways with the BJP-led government and it won the elections on its own. In this series, the party’s vote share decreased slightly in 2014. On May 29, 2019, the regional party scripted history in Odisha politics when its leader took oath as Chief Minister for a record fifth time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday greeted Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on his birthday. "Odisha CM and Biju Janata Dal president Patnaik turned 76 on Sunday. Birthday wishes to Odisha CM Shri Naveen Patnaik Ji. May he lead a long and healthy life in service of the people," PM Modi tweeted.
