The maiden session of the 17th Legislative Assembly that commenced on Monday witnessed role reversal on part of Naveen Patnaik, the country’s second longest serving chief minister, donning the unfamiliar mantle of Leader of Opposition for the first time in his 24-year-old inning in Odisha’s political landscape.
It was quite an absorbing scene on the floors of 147-member House as the Biju Janata Dal had to give up the treasury benches to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after firmly ensconced in power since 2000 under stewardship of Patnaik.
The treasury benches mostly comprising first-time MLAs and the seasoned lawmakers from Opposition BJD and Congress presented a fascinating texture to the inaugural session of the House after BJP rode to power defeating the much-fancied political rival- BJD- in 2024 Assembly polls.
All eyes were on Patnaik in his new avatar as the Leader of Opposition as he occupied the seat on the left side of the first row. Septuagenarian Patnaik, who ruled the State uninterruptedly since 2000 before losing out to a resurgent BJP in 2024, never sat in the Opposition benches.
BJD, the party which he headed, lost to the BJP in both the Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls. Patnaik, who never eyed on pan-India expansion of the party, failed to check the BJP’s electoral juggernaut in the recently-concluded polls.
The electoral defeat meant it was an end of Patnaik’s 24-long-year eventful and largely clean stint at the helm of governance in Odisha. Patnaik, a man of few words who mostly shied away from media glare, never sat on the Opposition benches. The coming days will bring to light the performance of Patnaik as the leader of Opposition.
Patnaik was twice the Union Steel Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet in 1998 and 1999 before becoming the Chief Minister of Odisha on March 5, 2000. Since then, his fairytale political journey has been largely unchallenged in the State till 4 June 202, when he was unseated by BJP.
After the death of legendary Biju Patnaik (his father), Biju Janata Dal carrying Biju babu’s name was founded on April 17, 1997 to fill the political void created in Odisha following the death of his father. Patnaik, who was settled in Delhi, was roped in to lead the party to cash in on the charisma of his immensely popular father and to defeat the then discredited Congress party.
On the first day of his role as the Leader of Opposition, Patnaik was at the forefront of Opposition walkout. The contentious issue of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das’ son alleged assault of an employee of Raj Bhawan (Governor’s House) on 7 July was grabbed by Patnaik-led BJD to put the new Government on back foot.
The police inaction in booking the Governor’s son the criminal offence provided the opportunity to BJD to target the ruling party on the floors of the Assembly.
“We are deeply shocked over the incident and absence of police action on the Governor’s son. Law and order situation seems to have collapsed in our State. When I was in government, immediate action was being initiated if ministers, MLAs, MPs and senior government servants broke the law”, Patnaik said outside the house while talking to reporters.
“The State government must abide by the law. As law is broken, my party staged a walkout in the assembly at the beginning of this session,” he said.
In the 147-member House, the ruling BJP has a strength of 78 seats while the Opposition BJD has 51 seats followed by the Congress with 14 seats, Independents three and one seat by the CPI-M.
The Congress toed in the same line with BJD and demanded immediate action against the Governor’s son. Realizing that the issue is steadily snowballed into a major controversy, the new Government promptly announced a probe by Puri Collector on the alleged assault case.