AA Edit | Naveen set to beat all records

Naveen Patnaik, who walked into Indian political theatre at 51 with little experience broke the record of veteran Communist leader Jyoti Basu of West Bengal as the second longest serving Chief Minister of an Indian state.

Patnaik who was sworn in Odisha Chief Minister for the first time on March 5, 2000, has completed 23 years and 139 days on the chair, with only Pawan Kumar Chamling who was chief minister of Sikkim for 24 years and 166 days, from December 12, 1994, to May 27, 2019, ahead of him. With the state going into the Assembly election in less than nine months, and Patnaik showing no sign of a retirement plan, Chamling’s record remains only to be broken.

Patnaik had an easy entry into politics, walking in the shoes of his illustrious and legendary father Biju Patnaik who did not have many equals.

Freedom fighter, politician, industrialist… Patnaik Senior strode the national life like a colossus, and his son, called into his father’s chosen profession upon his death, made the most of it.

He formed a party of his own in his father’s name, won back-to-back elections five times and took bold gambles, including snapping ties with the BJP which was on the rise and isolating own party colleagues who could pose a threat to him later. That he held on despite the powerful odds is nothing less than a miracle, given the slippery plane that Indian politics is.

It’s a strange phenomenon that Indian politicians who get a second term suddenly get the idea that people do not need the government’s helping hand and that freebies are a sin.

Patnaik has chosen to think otherwise, and has ensured that the government reaches every poor household in the form of material aid. People have their reason to pardon Patnaik’s faults, which include the fact that Odisha remains one of the most backward states in India and his rule has made no significant change to it and also that he has nurtured no second rung of leaders in his party that might even make him the longest serving Chief Minister.