Current Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik is the Chief Minister of Orissa, India. He is the son of the late Biju Patnaik, former Chief Minister of Orissa.His sister Gita Mehta is a renowned author and is the wife of Sonny Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Naveen Patnaik started out at Welham Boys’ School in Dehradun when he was seven years old and later continued at the The Doon School, Dehradun until he completed a Senior Cambridge Certificate at 17 years. He attended Delhi University where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Arts.
Naveen Patnaik returned from the U.S. upon the death of his father Biju Patnaik and was elected as Member of the 11th Lok Sabha in by-election from Aska Parliamentary Constituency. He was a member of the Consultative Committee of Ministry of Steel & Mines, Member of Standing Committee on Commerce, and Member Library Committee of Parliament. In 1998 he formed the Biju Janata Dal Party in Orissa and was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha from the Aska Parliamentary constituency. Subsequently he became the Chief Minister of the state in 2000 with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party and has been ruling since. His party was part of the National Democratic Alliance.
A clean image man Naveen Patnaik is the chief minister of Indian state of Orissa since 2009, who is known for making the government transparent and corruption free. A latecomer in politics, his is the only rule, which is not mired with any scandal, severely dogged his previous regimes. Born to the Grand Old Man of Orissa and former chief minister
Naveen Patnaik was born on October 16, 1946,in Cuttack, Orissa to former Chief Minister of Orissa Biju Patnaik and his wife Gyan Patnaik. At the age of 7 he was sent to Welham Boys’ School, Dehradun but later on shifted to the Doon School from where he obtained his Senior Cambridge Certificate at the age of 17. He attended the Delhi University where he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Arts.
Naveen Patnaik is a life-long bachelor. Among his siblings, his elder brother Prem Patnaik is a businessman while his sister Gita Mehta is a renowned author and is the wife of Sonny Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Naveen Patnaik himself is a writer and had for most part of his youth been away from both politics as well as Orissa but after his father’s demise he entered politics and a year later founded the Biju Janata Dal which won the state election on alliance with the BJP and formed the government with Naveen Patnaik as the Chief Minister. His mild mannerism, stand against corruption and “pro-poor policies” have resulted in the development of a huge support base in Orissa which has voted him to power in the last three consecutive terms. Naveen Patnaik is a gentleman, a thinking politician and more over a person with a genuine interest in solving the problems of the state. His handling of the bureaucracy has been exceptional. Like his father he had managed to control the otherwise errant and greedy bureaucracy and have transformed it to a machine for the development of the state
Naveen Patnaik joined politics in 1996, after the death of his father Biju Patnaik,leader of the Janata Dal and was elected as a member to the 11th Lok Sabha in the by-election from Aska Parliamentary Constituency in Orissa, India. He was a member of the Consultative Committee of Ministry of Steel & Mines, Member of Standing Committee on Commerce, and Member Library Committee of Parliament. A year later the Janta Dal split and Naveen founded the Biju Janta Dal which in alliance with the BJP-led NDA performed well and Naveen Patnaik was made the Union Minister for Mines. However, as the BJD won majority of seats in alliance with the BJP in Orissa Assembly elections, Naveen Patnaik resigned from the Union cabinet and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Orissa in 2000. Naveen Patnaik is widely projected as pro-poor as well as a “clean” and an “honest” person who did not hesitate to sack many political heavyweights on charges of corruption.
All this lead to the rise in the popularity of Naveen Patnaik and the BJD, the NDA was again victorious in 2004 and Naveen Patnaik continued as the Chief Minister but the friction between the ruling partners, the BJD and the BJP was getting more and more apparent,especially after the communal violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa in 2007-2008. The carnage against Christians carried on in the district was seen as the handiwork of the Sangh Parivar and Naveen Patnaik was distancing himself to protect his secular image. He further ordered arrests of VHP, Bajrang Dal, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams activists and called Bajrang Dal a “fundamentalist organization” infuriating the Sangh Parivar of which the BJP is the predominant constituent. The hardliners in the BJP slammed the BJD of not doing enough to arrest the killers of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati or stop “illegal religious conversions”.
In the run-up to the polls for the Lok Sabha and Orissa Vidhan Sabha elections in 2009, BJD walked out of the NDA and joined the nascent Third Front constituted mainly by the Left Front and few regional parties. The BJP accused Naveen Patnaik of betraying them but he has in recent interviews said that Kandhamal violence was an eye-opener for him and he would never tie up with the BJP ever again.
The BJD won a resounding victory in both the Vidhan Sabha as well as the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, bagging 14 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats and 103 of the 147 assembly seats and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Orissa on May 21 2009 for the third consecutive term.
Naveen Patnaik is also a founder member of the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH). He has authored three books: A Second Paradise: Indian Country Life 1590-1947, A Desert Kingdom: The people of Bikaner and the Garden of Life: An introduction to the Healing Plants of India, each one published in India, England and U.S..
