Odisha: Political history
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
The Patnaiks
Ashok Pradhan, Reign of Patnaiks: 40 years and counting, April 13, 2019: The Times of India
The Patnaik surname has been synonymous with Odisha’s political history. In the 70 years since independence, Odisha politics has been dominated by one Patnaik or another for four decades.
The reign of the Patnaiks began with Biju, followed by Janaki Ballabh of Congress, and then Biju’s son Naveen, the current CM and BJD leader, who has been in the saddle for 19 years.
Taken together, they have held the chief ministership for more than 40 years now — Biju seven years in two terms (1961-1963, 1990-1995), JB nearly 15 years in three terms (1980-1985, 1985-1989 and 1995-1999) and Naveen, 2000 onwards. Eleven other chief ministers have ruled Odisha.
Naveen could, however, be the last from the Biju Patnaik family to enter politics. So far, the 73-year-old has avoided involving any other member of his family in politics. His sister, Gita Mehta, has avoided the public gaze and elder brother Prem Patnaik runs his own business in Delhi-NCR.
But the JB clan, which is not related to the Biju clan and has for long been considered Congress’ first family in Odisha, continues to hold sway despite the party having lost its sheen in the state. Though JB and Biju were political rivals, JB’s son-in-law Soumya Ranjan, a BJD Rajya Sabha member, entered the fray from Khandapada assembly seat on a BJD ticket. Congress had announced the name of JB’s son as an MLA candidate from Begunia, the seat represented by JB twice, but he backed out after showing initial interest.
Soumya’s elder brother Niranjan is Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president and will be contesting from two assembly seats, Ghasipura and Bhandaripokhari this time. Niranjan’s son Nabajyoti will debut from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat as Congress nominee. Niranjan was a minister in JB’s cabinet in all his three terms.
The extended Patnaik family of Soumya and Niranjan have business interest cutting across sectors, from mining to automobile, real estate to media and education and seafood.
The Patnaiks belong to the ‘Karana’ caste, who make up less than 1% of the state’s population but dominate the political landscape in a state that has not been known to vote on caste lines. Odisha’s population includes 22.8% scheduled tribes, 17% scheduled castes and 54% backward castes.
As in 2024 May
Ashok Pradhan, May 11, 2024: The Times of India
Bhubaneswar: The Patnaiks have been the most dominant force in Odisha’s political and economic landscape. Just three individuals from two Patnaik families —Janaki Ballav (JB), Biju and the latter’s son Naveen — have governed the state as chief ministers for 45 years of the 77 since Independence. In the last 32 years, however, Odisha has seen 11 CMs.
Patnaiks, with variations in spelling, belong to the ‘Karan’ caste. Another prominent surname from the community is Mohanty. They comprise around 2% of the state’s population. Such is their prominence in Odisha’s politics that many refer to them as “political caste” by many.
Naveen, seeking a sixth term in office, has been at the helm since March 2000. If elected again, he will become the country’s longest serving CM in Aug, going past Sikkim ex-CM Pawan Chamling. His father, Biju, was Odisha CM from 1961 to 1963 and 1990 to 1995. JB governed the state for 14 years, from 1980 to 1989, and again from 1995 to 1999.
A bachelor at 77, Naveen, has earlier said no member of his family would enter politics. It has, however, been a subject of speculation that either his nephew Arun Patnaik or his niece Gayatri, kids of his elder brother Prem, may take over. The chatter has subsided recently with Naveen’s aide, V K Pandian, emerging as BJD’s second-in-command.
Another Karan, Nabakrushna Chaudhary (1950-1952 and 1952 to 1956) was CM for six years. Other CMs include largely Brahmins, some Rajputs, barring Nilamani Routray (OBC, 1977-1980), and two tribals Hemananda Biswal and Giridhar Gamang. The total tenure of Hemananda (Dec 1989-March 1990, Dec 1999-March 2000) and Giridhar (Feb 1999 to Dec 1999) as CM was 14 months.
“Karans and Brahmins together comprise less than 10% of the population but continue to dominate Odisha’s politics and business,” said R K Satapathy, a retired political science professor.
Shukadeb Naik, a former sociology professor, said unlike many other states, caste has never been much of a factor in among voters in Odisha. However, the leadership position has been largely occupied by the forward castes. “Giridhar and Hemanand may be called exceptions as they were made CMs for a few months each as a token gesture by the Congress high command,” he said. The state has around 22.8% tribals and 17% Scheduled Castes and an estimated over 50% OBCs.
Patnaiks dominate leadership positions in the opposition rank and files as well. Congress state unit president Sarat Pattanayak and its election coordination committee chief Bijay Patnaik, a former chief secretary, are from the Karan caste though from different clans.
Members of Congress strongman JB’s clan are also fighting polls. JB’s son, Pruthvi Ballav (47), is seeking to make his political debut from Begunia on a Congress ticket. JB’s son-in-law, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, has entered the fray from Ghasipura assembly seat as an Independent. Soumya, a media baron, was elected BJD MLA in 2019. His elder brother Niranjan Patnaik, a former Odisha Congress chief, has been contesting from the Bhandaripokhari assembly seat.
Dipti Ranjan Patnaik, the elder brother of Niranjan and Soumya, leads a business empire with interests ranging from mining to seafood. The Karan caste’s influence can be seen across various sectors — real estate, education, media, seafood and mining in this mineral-rich state. The SN Mohanty Group, another business house owned by the Karans, donated around Rs 45 crore in electoral bonds to BJD.
Though the current state BJP chief Manmohan Samal and party’s prominent Odisha face Dharmendra Pradhan belong to OBCs, Samir Mohanty, who was earlier the state BJP chief, is a Karan. Two notable figures in BJP, Aparajita Sarangi and Baijayant Panda, are Brahmins.
19 years in office (2000-19); looking ahead in 2019
Ashok Pradhan, March 15, 2019: The Times of India
From: Ashok Pradhan, March 15, 2019: The Times of India
In office since 2000, and with 20 out of Odisha’s 21 Lok Sabha seats in his kitty, four-time chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik is confident of holding his stead one more time, in the face of an emergent BJP.
The state — where assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be held simultaneously — will vote in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29.
To overcome perceived anti-incumbency, Naveen – who was BJP’s ally until 2009 and professes to maintain equidistance from both the saffron party and Congress since parting ways with the former — has focused on his image as a clean politician, his popularity with women voters, welfare schemes such as Kalia (cash assistance for farmers) while highlighting the alleged neglect of Odisha by the Centre.
Many say the 73-year-old bachelor’s image may be squeaky clean, much like the pristine white kurta-pyjama he favours, but that of his government is considerably less so. While Naveen has never been accused of graft in his four terms as chief minister, his government has drawn the opposition’s ire for chit fund and mining scams.
“Naveen’s incorruptible image will be his biggest asset as he seeks a fifth consecutive term. Political rivals have no leader to match his stature,” said Jayant Mohapatra, a retired professor of political science in Berhampur University.
Many also feel Naveen played his trump card hours before the poll dates were announced on Sunday. At a public meeting in Kendrapada, he said Odisha would reserve 33% of its LS seats for women candidates, thus fulfilling his promise to field women in at least seven of the 21 parliamentary seats in Odisha.
Though BJP spokesperson and fellow Odia, Sambit Patra, countered by asking why Naveen was not replicating this in the assembly polls, the unprecedented initiative is likely to endear the CM to his core vote bank of women. In 2012, he had increased the seats reserved for women in panchayati raj institutions to 50% from the 33% introduced by his father, the late Biju Patnaik, in the 90s. Women self-help groups, which get subsidised loans from the government, are key to Naveen’s continued run as CM.
Another strategy Patnaik has adopted is to replace several sitting MLAs and MPs to beat localised anti-incumbency. The regional party has 118 MLAs in the outgoing assembly of 147. “At least 15 MP candidates and 50 MLA candidates will be replaced,” a BJD insider said.
In the past month, Naveen has toured all 21 Lok Sabha segments multiple times and addressed several public meetings. A man of few words, he tends to keep his speeches short; even so, he has coined a catchphrase to draw claps and cheers – ‘aapana maane khusi ta? Mu bi khusi’ (Are you happy? I am also happy). The question has become the rage in villages and towns of the state.
Naveen also does his meetings with a twist: his ministers and senior party leaders sit among the audience and are not allowed to speak. Instead, little-known women, farmers and youths share the stage with the chief minister, take selfies with him and deliver speeches. “This has endeared Naveen to the people, they can identify with his simplicity. He listens to the people more than he speaks to them,” said senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya.
The strategy seems to be working. Laxmipriya Sha, a woman farmer from Balangir who shared the dais with Naveen at a public meeting in Bargarh district, said, “I don’t know of any farmer in my village who has shared the stage with the CM and been allowed to speak. It is an honour for the farmer community.”
BJP and Congress — faced with the Naveen juggernaut — are hoping the people are in the mood for change. “ E veryone is comparing 19 years of Naveen in Odisha with just five years of Modi at the Centre,” BJP state vice-president Sameer Mohanty said.
“People see new hope in Congress as we have promised complete farm loan waiver, better support price for paddy (Rs 2,600 per quintal up from the current Rs 1,750) and guaranteed monthly income,” said Odisha state Congress president.
Pinky Hota, June 13, 2024: The Times of India
After the declaration of Lok Sabha poll results on June 4, Modi began his victory speech with a ‘Jai Jagannath’ chant that drowned out the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ emanating from the crowd. Modi was celebrating his party’s whopping Lok Sabha and assembly victory – in Odisha. BJP won all but one of the state’s 21 parliamentary seats, picking up 12 new ones and altogether removing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from Parliament.
It also gained a majority in assembly (78 of 147 seats), removing Naveen Patnaik, the state’s longest-serving CM, who has run it for nearly a quarter century, from the helm. On Tuesday, the party chose four-time MLA Mohan Charan Majhi, a tribal, as the state’s new CM.
While BJD’s defeat may be in part an anti-incumbency mandate, it is BJD itself that paved the way for BJP’s grand arrival in Odisha.
BJD’s politics soil for BJP’s rise | Patnaik consolidated a powerful regional movement that for a long time made Odisha immune to national narratives. In the foreground of his vision of a proud Odisha was Hindu identity, with BJD spending ₹800cr on a pilgrimage corridor to Jagannath Temple in Puri.
But this Odisha-for-Hindu Odias logic primed voters for the triumph of BJP and its political Hinduism narrative. In 2024, the party challenged BJD precisely over who best represents and is most suited to preserve the state’s ‘pure’ Hindu identity. Building up an image of a weak Patnaik, Modi claimed that the CM, who is only four years his senior, was too frail for the task, and vowed to create a committee of inquiry to look into his health. Patnaik’s closest confidant, a Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer, VK Pandian, was accused of being CM’s puppeteer and a Tamil intruder to boot. Much was made of Pandian being a ‘foreigner’ and a political impostor attempting to steal Odisha’s wealth.
EC ordered the transfer of Pandian’s wife Sujata Karthikeyan, also a bureaucrat, who led Mission Shakti and played a pivotal role in BJD’s mobilisation of women through self-help groups, healthcare coverage, and expansion of women’s reservations in panchayati and LS seats.
BJD’s success with women was no match for this year’s battle over political Hinduism. Running with the Odia Hindu Asmita – Odia Hindu Pride – slogan, BJP beat Patnaik at his own game.
BJP inroads into tribes | BJD’s reliance on upper-caste Hindus backfired. SCs and STs constitute 40% of Odisha, while OBCs make up another 40%. BJP expanded across the state substantially by pulling tribal communities into the Hindu fold, which Patnaik’s Odia Asmita, by stoking Hindu pride, had paved such a smooth road for. Most tribal votes went to BJP, including in Mayurbhanj district, home of Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman propelled to international fame two years back when she became President.
Hinduisation of Odia tribes has pitted Adivasis against Dalits, whom Christian missionaries have been converting since the 19th century. There has been wave after wave of religious violence since 2008, when the murder of a VHP leader precipitated a pogrom against Christian Dalits in Kandhamal. This Adivasi-Tribal opposition was a winning strategy for BJP: tribals constitute 23% of the population, while Dalits make up only 17%.
BJD’s skewed growth model | Patnaik’s earlier success rested substantially on Odisha boasting one of the country’s fastest growing economies that attracted a lot of FDI, being focused on exploiting its wealth of natural resources.
While the promotion of Odisha as an ecotourist destination raised its national status as an upper-class travel destination, Patnaik’s vision of economic development leaned heavily on big capital investing in extraction. For all his claims about BJD being a pro-poor party, its economic success ended up dispossessing Adivasis and Dalits. The notorious Vedanta displacement of the Dongria Konds from areas around their sacred mountain Niyamgiri is but one example.
In the mineral-rich Sukinda town in Jajpur district, tribal residents voted against BJD for failing to address illegal mining, which Patnaik’s administration hadn’t stopped, and which had contaminated the town’s groundwater. While investments bloom, malnutrition remains chronic in the region, with tribals still migrating in droves for precarious, daily-wage labour.
Even ecotourism ended up being extractive rather than conservationist in nature, with tribal communities excluded from its profits.
BJP has its task cut out | It remains to be seen if tribal conditions in Odisha will improve under BJP. In Chhattisgarh, BJP has tweaked key laws protecting Adivasi autonomy and access to forests. Activists have alleged BJP doesn’t respect Adivasi rights and that it has targeted Adivasi Christians.
The strategic elevation of tribal leaders like Murmu, an Odia Santhal woman, and portrayal of Adivasis as ‘proto-Hindus’ who can be mobilised against Christian and Muslim minorities, have successfully rendered BJP the state’s ‘tribal party’. Majhi, Odisha’s first BJP CM, is also a Santhal leader, from the same tribe as India’s President, and from Keonjhar, an important mineral mining district.
To counter the destruction of Odisha’s ecology while protecting its minorities, a shared Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi platform will have to work against progressive deforestation, expedited by the region’s rampantly extractive economy.
The writer is an associate professor of anthropology at Smith College, US
Chief Ministers
2024: Mohan Charan Majhi: first tribal, first BJP CM in Odisha
Ashok Pradhan, June 12, 2024: The Times of India
Bhubaneswar: BJP picked four-time Santhal MLA Mohan Charan Majhi as Odisha’s 15th chief minister and its first in the eastern state, continuing the saffron party’s tribal outreach and preference for new faces that saw first-time CMs assume office in Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh and Haryana since last year.
As in MP and Rajasthan, BJP also named two deputy CMs-elect in Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida, a first-time legislator.
Majhi has big shoes to fill after BJD patriarch Naveen Patnaik’s uninterrupted 24- year stint as chief minister. When BJP was planning to announce the new CM on Tuesday, Majhi was in a hospital morgue, consoling fa- mily members of his favourite employee who lost his life in a road accident.
Economy vis-à-vis neighbouring states
2012-23
From: [From the archives, Dec 25, 2023: The Times of India]
From: [From the archives, Dec 25, 2023: The Times of India]
See graphics:
Economy vis-à-vis neighbouring states, 2012-23
Odisha, pre 1992
Flashpoints
1999: Baranga gang rape
Debabrata Mohapatra, February 22, 2021: The Times of India
Odisha: Baranga gang-rape survivor demands death for main accused
BHUBANESWAR: The woman, who was gang-raped by three men in Baranga area of Cuttack in January 1999, heaved a sigh of relief following the arrest of main accused Bibekananda Biswal on Monday and demanded that he should be hanged.
“The CBI had sat silent for all these years. I am grateful to police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi for finally providing me with some justice. I struggled with untold misery and trauma for the last two decades. There were several attempts to kill me,” she told the media.
The survivor said the prime accused should have been arrested when former chief minister JB Patnaik was alive. It must be noted that JB had to tender his resignation amid furore over the case. The woman had accused JB and his close associate (a former advocate general) of having engaged the accused to rape her.
Retired Orissa high court judge, justice A S Naidu, who had in 2010 upheld the life imprisonment of Pradeep Sahu and Dhirendra Mohanty, issued by Khurda sessions court in 2002, praised the commissionerate police for managing to nab the main accused. Naidu in his order had come down heavily on the CBI for failing to arrest the main accused.
YEAR WISE STATISTICS
2024
BJP, BJD to contest polls separately: no tie-up
March 23, 2024: The Times of India
Bhubaneswar: Two weeks after it started exploring a tie-up with BJD for LS and assembly polls, BJP ruled out an alliance with the regional party while positioning itself as flagbearers of Odia pride, reports Ashok Pradhan.
“Our concerns are on issues relating to pride, dignity and welfare of (Odiyas)... We are unable to agree with the state govt,” state BJP chief Manmohan Samal posted.
Lok Sabha elections
A
June 5, 2024: The Times of India
From: June 5, 2024: The Times of India
Bhubaneswar: BJP scored a resounding victory in elections in Odisha, surfing a pro-Modi wave in the state to an unprecedented 20 out of 21 seats. Congress retained Koraput, the only seat that didn’t go BJP’s way. Not a single BJD candidate won a Lok Sabha seat. In 2019, BJD had won 12 seats and BJP eight. Highlighting the “good work” of the Modi govt, BJP had sought votes for a “double-engine govt” in the simultaneous Odisha assembly and LS polls.
The strategic importance of winning Odisha in PM Modi’s political calculus was evident from his victory speech in Delhi. After exclaiming “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, he followed up with “Jai Jagannath”, highlighting the significance of Odisha in the party’s plans. “It will be for the first time that there will be a BJP CM in the land of Mahaprabhu Lord Jagannath,” he said. Behind BJP’s success lay its effective campaign strategy that emphasised the importance of voting for Modi. The PM had argued in rallies that votes for BJD would go waste due to its lack of national relevance. BJP also banked on Naveen’s “falling health”, “outsourced govt” and anti-incumbency. “Thank You Odisha... BJP will leave no stone unturned in fulfilling the dreams of the people and taking Odisha to new heights of progress,” Modi said in a post on X. Analysts said BJD seemed to have lost its independent identity because of its blind support to the Modi dispensation on every initiative.
BJP’s success extended to chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s home district of Ganjam, where the party won both Aska and Berhampur seats. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was leading over BJD’s Pranab Prakash Das in Sambalpur by over one lakh votes. Former Union minister Jual Oram was leading former Indian Hockey captain Dilip Tirkey by a similar margin from Sundargarh. In Balasore, former Union minister Pratap Sarangi secured his seat, defeating BJD’s Lekhasri Samanatasinghar, who had recently defected from BJP, by more than one lakh votes. Kendrapara, known as the “karmabhooomi” of the late Biju Patnaik, also fell into BJP’s kitty, with Baijayant Panda defeating BJD’s Anshuman Mohanty. Pradeep Panigrahy, a former BJD MLA who was expelled from the party, emerged victorious in Berhampur by over 1.6 lakh votes. In another notable contest, BJD veteran Bhartruhari Mahatab, who had joined BJP, defeated Santrupt Misra, a former top executive of the Aditya Birla Group and a political debutant from BJD.
