JOIN USOdisha Chief Minister and president of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Naveen Patnaik, who is known for his austere lifestyle, is actually a man worth crores. He owns movable and immovable assets and properties worth Rs 12.6 crore, an amount which has gone up by nearly Rs 4 crore in the last five years since the 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the eastern state.
However, 90 per cent of this wealth has been inherited by him from his parents — former chief minister the late Biju Patnaik and his wife Gyan Patnaik. The 67-year-old bachelor, who was a writer before his foray into politics, has not purchased any property or added any large asset during his 17-year political career.
As per the affidavit furnished by him while filing his nomination papers for the Hinjli Assembly constituency, Patnaik owns immovable assets worth Rs 11.88 crore.
They include his shares in Naveen Niwas, his present residence in Bhubaneswar and a bungalow on Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi, both built by Biju Patnaik, besides his ancestral home in Cuttack.
He shares all these assets and properties with his two siblings — writer elder sister Geeta Mehta who is settled abroad and industrialist elder brother Prem Patnaik who lives outside the state. Patnaik also inherited a farmhouse in Faridabad near Delhi from his late mother.
The three-time chief minister even owns gold ornaments worth a little over Rs 2 lakh, which has gone up by about Rs 60,000 since the 2009 polls. He has a bank balance of Rs 14 lakh, kept in different branches of two nationalised banks in New Delhi, Bhubaneswar as well as his assembly constituency, Hinjli. His cash in hand stands at Rs 15,000 which was Rs 5,000 in 2009.
The only vehicle Patnaik owns is a 1980 model ambassador car which he inherited from his father. The BJD chief’s annual income was about Rs 11 lakh in the 2013 fiscal.