Naveen Patnaik of Odisha achieved a remarkable feat on Saturday and became the second longest serving chief minister of a state in India with a tenure of 23 years and 139 days. He has replaced Jyoti Basu of West Bengal. Former Chief Minister of Sikkim, Pawan Kumar Chamling still holds the record for being the longest serving Chief Minister in the country. He was the CM of the Himalayan state for more than 24 years from 12 December 1994 to 27 May 2019.
Patnaik, a five-time Chief Minister of Odisha, assumed office on March 5, 2000 and has been in office for the last 23 years and 139 days. Whereas Jyoti Basu remained on the post for 23 years and 137 days. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 21 June 1977 to 5 November 2000.
Patnaik will become the longest serving Chief Minister of India
Patnaik is the third leader after Chamling and Basu to become the chief minister of a state for five consecutive terms. If the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) returns to power in the 2024 assembly elections, Patnaik will become the longest-serving chief minister in the country.
BJD vice-president Prasanna Acharya said, “We are happy that our chief minister has broken the record of former West Bengal CM Jyoti Basu. I am sure Patnaik will break all past records, and emerge as the longest-serving CM.”
Congress leader SS Saluja said, ‘We congratulate Naveen Patnaik for becoming the second longest serving CM, but we are sad that Patnaik is not doing anything during his tenure.’ Senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari said that history will not remember how long someone was the chief minister, but how someone creates history in a short span of time.
Naveen Patnaik Yatra
Naveen Patnaik started his political journey in 1997 after the death of his father Biju Patnaik. He was first elected as a member of the 11th Lok Sabha in a bye-election from the Aska parliamentary constituency in Odisha.
He broke away from the Janata Dal on 26 December 1997 and formed a new party named after his father. In 1998, he was inducted as the Minister of Steel and Mines in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However, he returned to the state in 2000 to contest the assembly elections. Patnaik successfully led a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2000. He was sworn in as the 14th CM of Odisha on 5 March 2000.
The National Democratic Alliance, of which the BJD was a member, assumed power in 2004. Even though the NDA suffered a setback in the 2004 general elections, Patnaik’s political prospects in Odisha remained unaffected.
(with inputs from agencies)