Following a massive defeat in the State Assembly and Parliamentary elections, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year tenure came to an end as he submitted his resignation to Governor Raghubar Das at the Raj Bhavan in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

The Biju Janata Dal, which has governed Odisha since 1997, lost to the BJP, breaking Naveen Patnaik’s long-standing reign as chief minister.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won 78 seats in the 147-seat assembly. The BJD managed to secure only 51 seats, falling well short of the majority mark of 74, while the Indian National Congress won 14 seats.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP performed exceptionally well, winning 20 out of the 21 parliamentary seats in the state, with the remaining seat going to the Congress.

Naveen Patnaik made an unexpected entry into state politics through the BJD, a party named after his father, former Odisha CM Biju Patnaik. His political career began with a victory in the 1998 Lok Sabha bypoll, representing his father’s constituency of Aska. After the BJD’s success in the 2000 Assembly elections, forming a coalition with the BJP and gaining a majority, Patnaik resigned from his union cabinet position to become CM.

(With ANI input)