Lesson From Naveen Babu

Odisha shows how voters reward a leader who delivers high and consistent economic growth

- Arvind Panagariya

Having witnessed good policies translating into rapid improvement in economic fortunes, the Indian electorate now returns to power leaders who deliver such change without getting mired in corruption scandals. Simultaneously, it does not hesitate to give a boot to leaders who fail to perform or perform but indulge in blatant corruption. Unsurprisingly, analysts who remain wedded to the old voting model which postulates that caste and community equations are the best guide to voter behaviour repeatedly get their election forecasts wrong.

The state that best illustrates the power of the outcome-based model is Odisha. Its chief minister Naveen Patnaik founded Biju Janata Dal in 1997 and managed to win nine out of 21 seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. He then led his party to victory in the 2000 Odisha assembly elections and was inaugurated as the 14th chief minister of the state on March 5, 2000.

Since then, people have returned Patnaik to the state’s highest office another four times with his latest five-year term beginning on May 30, 2019. At 76 years, Patnaik has now served for 22 years and three months as his state’s CM. He is currently the fourth longest serving CM in India’s entire history. By the time he finishes the current term, he would have moved up another two places on the list, overtaking Gegong Apang of Arunachal Pradesh and Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and leaving only Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim ahead of him by fewer than four months.