Bhubaneswar: Dismissed by critics as a political greenhorn over a decade ago, Naveen Patnaik with his 'Mr Clean' image scripted history becoming chief minister for the third consecutive term after steering his BJD to a landslide victory in the assembly elections in Orissa.
BJD, which parted ways with BJP-led NDA in March this year abruptly ending its 11-year alliance, went it alone in both the parliamentary and assembly elections and emerged victorious in 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. The party swept to power in the state bagging 103 of the 147 assembly seats.
A reluctant entrant into politics, Patnaik plunged into public life in 1997 after his father, the charismatic Biju Patnaik, passed away, to lead the BJD to victory in the assembly elections in 2000 and 2004 in alliance with BJP.
What he proved after an acrimonious parting of ways with BJP in the backdrop of the riots in Kandhamal, was that BJD was a formidable political force on its own by sweeping both the assembly and Lok Sabha elections, hands down.
When the legendary Biju died, heavyweights in the Janata Dal like Ashok Das, Nalinikanta Mohanty and Bijoy Mohapatra roped in Naveen to contest the by-poll to the Aska Lok Sabha seat. Naveen won the by-election and was made the president of the BJD, a regional outfit floated by Biju's followers after a split from the Janata Dal in December 1997.
