Naveen Patnaik turns 80: Is a BJD comeback on the horizon for Odisha after 2024 rout?

As Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik turns 80 on Friday, there is a clear indication that he is harbouring a desire for a comeback. Odisha will have Assembly elections in early 2029 along with the Lok Sabha polls.

Since the BJD’s unexpected electoral rout in the 2024 election—ending the second-longest chief-ministerial tenure in India after Sikkim’s Pawan Kumar Chamling—the party has faced a difficult period in opposition, for the first time in Patnaik’s political life. BJP’s Mohan Charan Majhi ended Naveen Patnaik’s record Chief Ministership of 24 years.

Though Patnaik or other BJD leaders haven’t faced hounding like other opposition leaders in the country, partly due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s respect for him,  the BJP has weakened the BJD by taking away its MPs and MLAs.

While reconciling to the new fate as the opposition leader, Patnaik seems to be biding time, becoming physically active after the successful operation for cervical arthritis in June 2025 at Mumbai’s  Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. His ailment had prevented him from visiting all constituencies in the 2024 election. This was cited as the major reason for BJD’s debacle in the election, besides the V K. Pandian factor.

Though the BJD lost both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is aware of the people’s love and sympathy for Patnaik. Despite its double-engine campaign, the state’s first BJP government is still trailing behind the previous BJD government in public support. Patnaik is aware of this and hopes to turn the tables once the Congress’s initial enthusiasm in countering the BJP wanes.

But age and frail health are still an issue for Patnaik.

Though the BJD has always maintained equi-distance from BJP and Congress,  Naveen Patnaik had supported the Narendra Modi government on national issues when he was Chief Minister. However, during the Rajya Sabha elections held last March, the BJD and the Congress fielded a common candidate who was defeated after BJD MLAs cross-voted for the BJP. The BJD demanded disqualification of eight MLAs, while the Congress suspended three of its members.

The issue is still with the Odisha High Court. But the BJD and Congress tie-up was temporary.

Though the BJP is not yet a member of the INDI Alliance, its Rajya Sabha members surprised observers by joining the protest march organised by the opposition on October 6, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It was also the first time the BJD and the Congress shared a public platform in Delhi. This is because the BJD had been raising concerns over the SIR issue, alleging that over 20 lakh voters have been deleted from the electoral roll in Odisha.

The party also clarified that it was not part of the INDIA bloc despite joining the stir.

BJP vs BJD

The BJD received a shocker in the Nawapara Assembly election held last November. In the bypolls necessitated due to the death of the sitting BJP MLA, the BJD candidate came a poor third after the deceased’s son switched over to the BJP and won as the party candidate. The Congress came second. The BJD’s pathetic show was despite Patnaik going there to campaign.

The state also witnessed resumption of the college union elections, which were stopped by the previous BJD government. In the elections held on October 15, the main fight was between BJP’s ABVP and BCJD, the student wing of BJD.

The BJD alleged that the ruling party misused government machinery and police to ensure the victory of the ABCP candidates. Police had also detained BCJD President Ipsita Sahu to suppress growing support for the party and Naveen Patnaik.

The BJD’s next challenge will be elections to the rural and urban bodies due in the early part of next year. The party’s official machinery has already started preparations, hoping to repeat the last elections where the BJD swept both panchayat and urban body polls.

The fight will be tough with the ruling BJP trying to reverse the same in coming elections.

BJD’s weapons

Odisha is a mineral-rich state, and mining revenue had brought stability to the state’s finances. However, the Centre’s Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 (MMDR), has come in handy for opposition parties in the state, as it is going to bring huge losses to Odisha.

Both BJD and the Congress, along with other opposition parties, have taken this up against the Centre. Though Chief Minister Majhi has been defending it, the BJD has organised a rally on the issue, which was attended by Patnaik himself. While Patnaik wrote a letter to BJP MPs from Odisha demanding repeal of the MMDR Act, the party’s new Rajya Sabha MP Dr Santrupt Mishra has accused BJP’s MPs from Odisha of supporting the MMDR Act, though the state could lose nearly Rs. 1 lakh crore in mining-related arrears besides Rs. 12000 cr annually as revenue.

The BJD is also conducting its annual one-month-long Jansampark Padayatra. Patnaik, who took part in it, has criticised the BJP government on issues regarding farmers, women, middle-class families and poorer households. He has also raised the concerns of Gen Z in the rallies.

The aim of the party is to make workers battle-ready for the upcoming local body elections, and these rallies are a means to step up grassroots outreach and revitalise the party after the electoral setback.

The future

One of the poll planks of the BJP during the last Assembly elections was ‘Odia Asmita’ (Odia pride), which PM Modi also harped on during his campaign. The campaign rode on the role V K Pandian, an IAS official from Tamil Nadu, played in Patnaik’s Cabinet. The private secretary of Patnaik, Pandian, was allegedly the one who called the shots in the government and political matters.

Since Patnaik developed health issues and had almost stopped visiting his office in the state secretariat, everything centred around Mr Pandian. He even joined the party just before the election after taking retirement from the government.

However, Pandian, assuming the role of a star campaigner and ignoring BJD senior leaders, created the impression that Patnaik had been weak.

Post the debacle, Pandian quit politics, but Patnaik’s dependence on him continued despite the discontent expressed by his partymen. Interestingly, Pandian’s IAS batchmate wife, Sujata Karthikeyan, took voluntary retirement in 2025 and has joined BJD. She is now regularly holding office in BJD headquarters and has been a presence in BJD rallies on MMDR, targeting the BJP.

Her status of being an Odia has blunted the criticism against Pandian. Patnaik is a bachelor, and his nephew and nieces are reportedly not interested in politics. So many assume Sujata to be his successor. Patnaik is yet to name any successor and is perhaps the only second-generation successful politician in India who had not been groomed by family.

Patnaik came to prominence only after the death of his father, the legendary Biju Patnaik, who was the former Chief Minister of Odisha.

Only after Biju Patnaik’s death did his party colleagues—the then Janata Dal leaders in Delhi and Odisha—persuade his second son, the writer Naveen Patnaik, to contest the by-election from his late father’s Lok Sabha constituency, Aska, in southern Odisha. The seat was adjacent to Berhampur, from where former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao had won in 1996.

The rest became history. Naveen Patnaik broke away from the Janata Dal to form a regional party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), named after his father, and allied with the BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L. K. Advani. The alliance swept the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, and Patnaik joined the Vajpayee government in Delhi.

In the 2000 Assembly elections, the BJD-BJP alliance came to power in Odisha, unseating the Congress government in the aftermath of the devastating super cyclone. The two parties governed together until the Kandhamal communal riots—amid allegations of Sangh Parivar involvement—prompted Patnaik to end the alliance. Thereafter, the BJD won every election until 2024, including the 2014 polls despite the Narendra Modi wave and again in 2019.

Tale of two bureaucrats

Patnaik’s political career can be understood through his dependence on two IAS officers. When he entered Odisha politics, he relied on Pyarimohan Mohapatra, a retired IAS officer from the 1963 batch who had served as his father’s principal secretary in the 1990s. Mohapatra was instrumental in building the BJD’s organisational structure and consolidating Biju Patnaik’s political legacy. He represented the party in the Rajya Sabha twice before he and Patnaik fell out in 2012.

After that, V. K. Pandian effectively managed the party’s affairs until the BJD’s electoral disaster in 2024. Pandian was also believed to have close ties with the BJP’s central leadership even before the 2024 elections. For this reason, political observers believe that if the BJP finds itself in a weaker position in the future, it may consider an alliance with the BJD. At present, however, the BJD is seeking to define itself as a regional party by raising issues that strengthen its own political identity.