Proving political pundits and his critics wrong, Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik on Saturday scored a hat-trick as his 12-year-old regional party, BJD, and its allies posted a landslide win in 103 of the 147 Assembly seats.

“I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity shown by the people of my state towards the BJD. The people of Orissa have voted us for our pro-poor programmes. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people. We shall work much harder and ensure peace, harmony, progress, development and welfare of the state,” he told reporters soon after the victory.

By winning absolute majority in the Assembly polls, Naveen became the first Oriya politician to become Chief Minister for a third consecutive time.

Having taken the biggest gamble of his political career by severing ties with his oldest ally BJP before the elections, he bucked all anti-incumbency trends as his clean image helped the party register the biggest electoral victory in his over a decade-old political career.

Though everyone expected the BJD to bleed following its snapping of ties with the BJP, the party seemed to have benefited out of Naveen’s leadership and the populist scheme of providing rice at Rs 2 per kg.

The Congress which was hamstrung by a lack of strategy and leadership during the entire campaign won only 26 seats. The party’s campaign was listless with its PCC president K P Singh Deo denied a ticket to fight either the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls. There seemed to be confusion in the party rank and file as the party continued to tinker with its candidate list till the last moment. Singh Deo accepted his party’s defeat.

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