Naveen Patnaik
Encyclopedia
Naveen Patnaik (born 16 October 1946) is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...

 of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the chief of Biju Janata Dal
Biju Janata Dal
The Biju Janata Dal is a state political party of the Indian state of Orissa led by Naveen Patnaik, son of former state chief minister Biju Patnaik. It was founded on 27 December 1997.-History:...

, a regional political party in Orissa.

Personal life

Naveen Patnaik was born in Cuttack
Cuttack
Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...

, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

,(Belongs to Nuagam, near Bhanjanagar,Ganjam District.) to father Biju Patnaik
Biju Patnaik
Biju Patnaik was an Indian politician. Also known as Biju Babu.Son of Lakshminarayan and Ashalata Patnaik, Bijayananda Patnaik was born in Cuttack, Orissa on March 5, 1916..-Role in Indonesian freedom struggle:Biju...

, former Chief Minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...

 and active freedom fighter of Orissa and mother Gyan Patnaik. At the age of 7 he was sent to Welham Boys' School
Welham Boys' School
Welham Boys School is a boarding school in India. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas over an area of , the school lies amidst the hills and rivers of the Dehra Dun. Students from many parts of the sub-continent and beyond attend the school...

, Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...

, but later on shifted to the Doon School from where he obtained his Senior Cambridge Certificate at the age of 17. He attended the kirorimal College, Delhi University, where he obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Arts.

He is a life-long bachelor. His elder brother Prem Patnaik is a Delhi based businessman while his sister Gita Mehta
Gita Mehta
Gita Mehta is an Indian writer and was born in Delhi in a renowned Oriya family of freedom fighters. She is the daughter of Biju Patnaik, an Indian independence activist and a Chief Minister in post-independence Orissa. Her younger brother Naveen Patnaik is presently the Chief Minister of Orissa...

 is a renowned author and is the wife of Sonny Mehta
Sonny Mehta
Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta is a publisher and editor-in-chief of Alfred A Knopf.He was educated at Lawrence School, Sanawar. He is referenced in the musical The Last Five Years and is well known for moving in with Douglas Adams in order to make sure he finished his book So Long, and Thanks for All...

, Editor-in-Chief of Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Political career

Naveen Patnaik is a writer and had for most part of his youth been away from both politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 as well as Orissa but after his father Biju Patnaik's demise he entered politics and a year later founded the Biju Janata Dal
Biju Janata Dal
The Biju Janata Dal is a state political party of the Indian state of Orissa led by Naveen Patnaik, son of former state chief minister Biju Patnaik. It was founded on 27 December 1997.-History:...

 named after Biju patnaik which won the state election with the BJP as its alliance and formed the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 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. 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.

He joined politics in 1997, after the death of his father Biju Patnaik,leader of the Janata Dal
Janata Dal
Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P...

 and was elected as a member to the 11th Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...

 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 National Democratic Alliance
National Democratic Alliance (India)
The National Democratic Alliance is a centre-right coalition of political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and had thirteen constituent parties. Its convenor is Sharad Yadav, and its honorary chairman is former prime minister Atal...

 (NDA) performed well and Naveen Patnaik was made the Union Minister for Mines in the cabinet of A.B.Vajpayee. 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.

2004 Elections

All this led to the rise in the popularity of A B Bajpayee and the BJP, 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 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/08guest.htm in Kandhamal
Kandhamal
Kandhamal is a district of the state of Orissa, India. The district headquarters of the district is Phulbani.-History:The Kandhmal district was created on 1 April 1993 from the former Boudh-Kandhmal district as a result of district reorganization in the state of Orissa.-Communal unrest and...

 district of Orissa in 2007–2008 and also active participation Bajrang Dal in Riots.Shri Naveen Patnaik is allegedly involved in Vedanta land scam,mining irregularities

2009 Elections

In the run-up to the polls for the Lok Sabha and Orissa Vidhan Sabha
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...

 elections in 2009, BJD walked out of the NDA after severing ties with the right wing BJP and joined the nascent Third Front constituted mainly by the Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...

 and few regional parties. This he did after severe criticism of BJP's involvement in Kondhamal anti Christian riot during 2007-08. The BJD won a resounding victory in both the Vidhan Sabha (State Assembly) 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).

Writing career

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
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.
He is an ardent devotee of Maa Tara Tarini and often visits the abode of the mother goddesses, the breast shrine of Adi Shakti near Berhampur, Ganjam district.

External links

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