After facing a huge setback in the state assembly elections, the 24-year-old reign of Odisha Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik came to an end as he tendered his resignation to the state governor Raghubar Das at the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneshwar today.
Since 1997, the Biju Janta Dal has reigned over Odisha for 27 years. However, in the recently held state assembly polls, it lost to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), breaking Patnaik's aura of invincibility in the state.
The BJP bagged 78 seats in the 147-seat state assembly, while the BJD trailed behind as it was only able to get 51 seats, followed by Congress's 14 seats.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP also performed well, as it was able to secure 20 out of 21 general assembly seats in the state.
Patnaik had made his entry into state politics by winning the 1998 Lok Sabha by-poll from the Aska constituency. But, after BJD secured a victory in the 2000 assembly elections and formed a government in alliance with the BJP, Patnaik resigned from his post in the Union Cabinet to assume the role of the state's Chief Minister.
Since then, he has been the second longest-serving CM after Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
