Patnaik, who has been in power for four consecutive terms, faced threat from BJP’s rising popularity in the state.
What’s interesting is that Odisha has been one of the states which saw a rising influence of the BJP. In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had barely managed to bag one seat from the state. But this time around, the BJP has managed to get 7 seats from the state.
The exit polls had predicted 10 seats for the BJP.
Interestingly, BJP used to be an ally for the
Naveen Patnaik, has gone on to win a record fifth term as the Chief Minister of the state. However, in the past year, several BJD top leaders exited the party – with founding member and Kendrapada MP Baijayant Panda joining the BJP. Panda went on to be the National Vice-President of the BJP.
While rumours of his ill-health have also been doing the rounds, to dissipate those rumours, Patnaik even released a video of him working out and also gave out interviews while in the gym.
Patnaik comes from one of Odisha’s political legacy families. His father Biju Patnaik was the third Chief Minister of the state from the Janata Dal. When his father had passed away in 1997, Naveen Patnaik fought Lok Sabha elections to win from the Aska parliamentary constituency. Three years later, in the Assembly elections, Patnaik, having formed his political party Biju Janata Dal, went on to win the elections.
In the 2014 assembly elections in Odisha, Patnaik’s BJD won by securing 117 seats out of the 147 seats in the state assembly.
See Also:
Odisha Lok Sabha Election Result 2019