Happy Birthday CM: Naveen Patnaik Turns 77, Skips Celebrations For 10th Time

Bhubaneswar: It is for the sixth consecutive year that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who turned 77 on Monday, will not be celebrating his birthday.

In a statement, the CMO said that there would be no celebrations in view of the demise of his elder sister Gita Mehta last month. His well-wishers have been requested not to visit his residence (Naveen Niwas) in the capital city here to wish him on his birthday.

Social media platforms, however, are flooded with heartfelt birthday wishes for the second longest-serving chief minister of a state in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also prayed for his long and healthy life.

It was in 2011 that Naveen first decided against celebrating his birthday in honour of the flood victims.

Two years later (2013), the state was struck by Cyclone Phailin in which 23 people were killed and about 9 million residents were affected. More than 1 million people were evacuated ahead of its landfall to avoid a repeat of the 1999 cyclone, which saw 10,000 deaths. Choosing not to celebrate his birthday, Naveen held rehabilitation and relief meetings with senior officials with a focus on restoring electricity in the worst-affected Ganjam district.

In 2014, the Chief Minister did not celebrate his birthday in view of the devastation caused by cyclone Hudhud which left three persons dead and hundreds homeless in the state.

As a mark of respect to the jawans, who laid down their lives fighting against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, Naveen decided against any kind of celebrations in 2016.

In 2018, he did not celebrate his birthday in view of the large-scale damage and human suffering caused due to cyclone Titli and subsequent floods in several districts.

The loss inflicted by cyclone Fani that struck Odisha coast near Puri on May 3, 2019, again saw him giving his birthday celebrations a skip in 2019.

He had also decided not to celebrate the day in 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic and again in 2021 with the second wave returning to haunt the state again.

In 2022 too, Naveen had appealed to people not to visit his residence to wish him on his birthday. Instead, he flew to Hyderabad to attend the last curtain raiser to the ‘Make in Odisha’ conclave, the state’s flagship industry-investors meet.

Naveen was born on October 16, 1946, in Cuttack. The alumnus of Doon School and St Stephen’s learnt the art of politics after he first won the Lok Sabha by-election from Aska in 1997, a seat that fell vacant following the death of his father. He then broke away from the Janata Dal and formed Biju Janata Dal the same year. In the Lok Sabha polls the next year, his party allied with the BJP and Naveen joined Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government as the steel and mines minister.

Naveen became the Chief Minister in 2000 when the state was still recovering from the devastation caused by the 1999 Super Cyclone. The BJD is probably the only regional party that has not lost a single  election it contested since it was formed in December 1997 and Naveen has been at the helm of affairs for 23 years and 225 days, becoming the second longest serving CM in the country’s history.

He is now second only to Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, who holds the enviable record of helming a state for the longest time of 24 years and 166 days.