BHUBANESWAR: Curtains came down on Tuesday on the 25-year rule of BJD head and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Odisha as the BJP virtually swept both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state and is set to form the new government on June 10.
The impact of the verdict is not restricted to the political future of Naveen but also of the BJD that dominated the state for over 15 years. The party formed by Naveen Patnaik in 1997 had come to power in 2000 with the BJP as its ally. It gained from strength to strength even after breaking the alliance just before 2009 elections. Patnaik and his party had then developed an aura of invincibility following victories in five consecutive elections.
However, this election put a spanner in the BJD’s bid for a record sixth term. Such has been the extent of BJP surge that the chief minister who had withstood the Modi wave in 2014 and 2019, fell to a little-known Laxman Bag of the BJP in Kantabanji, which he contested as the second seat, by over 15,000 votes. Naveen, however, won from his traditional stronghold Hinjili in Ganjam district.