Bhubaneswar, May 2 -- Chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president, Naveen has been extremely lucky in politics. Making a reluctant entry into the political arena in 1997 following his father, Biju Patnaik's death he won the Aska Lok Sabha by-election without much difficulty. Back then he could barely speak Odia and the opposition sought to make an issue of it but the tactic did not click with the voters who accepted Patnaik.
Luck was also on his side when he led the BJD-BJP combine to a comfortable victory in 2000 assembly elections. The prevailing atmosphere in the state at the time favoured him and his alliance. People were itching to teach the Congress a lesson for its mishandling of the situation arising out of 1999 super-cyclon...