Leader of the Opposition in Odisha Assembly and Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik, on Saturday was elected unopposed to the post of BJD president for the ninth term in a row at the party headquarters here.

The regional party has been named after his late father Biju Patnaik. Naveen Patnaik has been elected unopposed as party president eight times in a row since the party’s formation in 1997. He was last elected to the position in February 2020.

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BJD lost the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls due to false narrative created by BJP Patnaik told reporters after getting elected as regional party’s chief.

“We missed the last election with a narrow margin even though BJD got more popular votes. This is because we couldn’t effectively counter the false narrative. Even now creating false narratives is the main strategy against BJD. We should be aggressive in exposing this false narrative especially in social media”.

Stating that BJD needs to strongly improve put social media presence, Patnaik observed that technology should be used to tell facts and without technology we can not reach out to people.

Naveen Patnaik-led BJD lost to BJP in both the Assembly polls and Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Patnaik, who never eyed on pan-India expansion of the party, failed to check the BJP’s electoral juggernaut. The electoral loss put to an end Patnaik’s 24-long-year eventful and largely clean stint at the helm of governance in Odisha.

The regional party was completely wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls down to zero in the 21 seats it fought. In the 147 seat assembly polls, it fared better 51 seats, which was not enough to prevent BJP with 78 seats to form its maiden government in the coastal State.

Patnaik, a man of few words, ruled the State since 2000 and never lost a single election till 2024 electoral defeat.

The defeat interrupted Patnaik, a shrewd politician and master strategist; put brakes on him from becoming Chief Minister for a record 6th term with a new record of being India’s longest serving Chief Minister.

With the regional party out of power, the BJD is currently contending with intra-party dissension with many believing that Patnaik’s iron-like grip over the party is on the wane.