Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik looks beyond himself

With senior leaders leaving him or turning detractors of his government, Patnaik is looking at younger leaders to face the BJP's challenge

As he gets older and several of his senior party colleagues distance themselves from him, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has started looking to the future of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) beyond himself.

When Naveen Patnaik founded the BJD as a regional party in December 1997 following the demise of his father and former chief minister Biju Patnaik, many had doubts about the party's longevity. But Naveen Patnaik won election after election - he is currently in his fifth successive term as Odisha CM - dispelling all conjectures about his party and leadership.

The sons of many former chief ministers in the BJD strengthened the party's base across the state. Their support enhanced the BJD's image as the true successor to the Biju Patnaik legacy rooted in Odia sub-nationalism.

Although those former chief ministers were detractors of Biju Patnaik, their sons accepted Naveen Patnaik's leadership without hesitation.

Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the son-in-law of one of the longest-serving Congress chief ministers of Odisha, JB Patnaik, who ruled the state for 15 years, also joined the BJD and became a Rajya Sabha Member in 2018, adding to the BJD's strength.

But just before the last general elections, former chief minister Nandini Satpathy's son and editor of an Odia daily, Dharitri, Tathagata Satpathy, a four-term MP, decided to quit politics to refocus on journalism. Satpathy had earlier left the BJD after his first term in the Lok Sabha and returned ahead of the 2004 polls.

Meanwhile, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who quit the Rajya Sabha and successfully contested the Assembly election in 2019, has started expressing his displeasure over the state government's functioning in recent days. As the editor of the largest circulated Odia daily, Sambad, who also owns a regional television channel, Soumya Ranjan has taken to question the party leadership, ostensibly because he was not made a minister.

The BJD's senior Lok Sabha member Bhartruhari Mahtab, son of former chief minister Harekrushna Mahatab, has for some time now expressed his unhappiness with the party's functioning. He, too, has used his newspaper, The Prajatantra, to question the state government. Mahtab was given a Lok Sabha ticket at the last moment in 2019. There is now speculation that he is becoming closer to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Bijayshree Routray, son of former chief minister Nilamani Routray, had not turned critical of the party leadership until his death in June. He had left his seat to his son in the 2019 polls.

But AU Singh Deo, senior leader and son of former chief minister Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo, is also dissatisfied with the party. He started distancing himself from the BJD when he was not given a Rajya Sabha berth for the second time in 2018. Both his sons, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo and Arkesh Singh Deo, lost the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2019. His family's control over the Balangir district has diminished. However, they have little opportunity to leave the BJD. Members of their family, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, a Lok Sabha MP, and her husband and former Odisha minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo are in the BJP for a long time.

When the sons of former chief ministers are distancing themselves from him and the desertion of the party's leading lights, including former BJD Lok Sabha MP Baijayant Panda, Naveen Patnaik has started the process to bring a generational change in the party.

Since its former ally, the BJP, has replaced the Congress as the BJD's main rival in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik leaves no stone unturned to checkmate the saffron party's growth and has increasingly entrusted party work to the younger leadership.

With the gram panchayat and civic body polls around the corner in the state, Naveen Patnaik has started reorganising the party and its frontal organisations by giving responsible posts to younger leaders.

Pranab Prakash Das, Jajpur MLA and former minister, was appointed organisational secretary of the BJD last year. He is the son of veteran Janata Dal leader, the late Ashok Das, a close associate of Biju Patnaik but never joined the BJD.

Naveen Patnaik has prepared a roadmap to make the BJD a permanent political force in the mineral-rich eastern state. Political observers speculating that BJD will have a bleak future after Naveen Patnaik becomes older and infirm are now changing their assessment.

The BJD, which has been in power since 2000, never had a permanent office for its headquarters in Bhubaneswar. It functioned from a government quarter. But Naveen Patnaik has now allotted government land to the party to build an impressive modern structure to house its headquarters.

On the governance front, apart from making his party organise blood donation camps even during the two waves of the pandemic, Naveen Patnaik recently created a separate department in his government for women's empowerment and taken welfare measures for farmers and tribal people.

The Odisha CM continues to build his image by naming welfare schemes after his late father and Lord Jagannath, revered as Odisha's presiding deity. Patnaik has launched initiatives like 'Mo Sarkar' or `my government' to receive feedback on the government's programmes.

(The writer is a Bhubaneswar based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors’ own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.