Politics of Odisha

Politics in Odisha takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Union Government of India exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of India including Odisha. The state has a multi-party system where the two main parties are the centrist and secularist Indian National Congress (INC) and the regional socialist party Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has increased in recent years. The Governor of Odisha is appointed by the Union Government and can, in some circumstances, dismiss the state government.

Chief ministers

Main article: List of Chief Ministers of Odisha

Since independence, the Chief Ministers of Odisha have been:

Key:
No.: Incumbent No.

No.		Name	Took office	Left office	Term	Political party
	1	Harekrushna Mahatab	15 August 1947	12 May 1950	1	Indian National Congress
	2	Nabakrushna Choudhury	12 May 1950	19 October 1956	1st: 12 May 1950–20 Feb 1952 2nd: 20 Feb 1952–19 Oct 1956	Indian National Congress
	(1)	Harekrushna Mahatab	19 October 1956	25 February 1961	2nd: 19 Oct 1956–06 Apr 1957 3rd: 06 Apr 1957–22 May 1959 4th: 22 May 1959–25 Feb 1961	Indian National Congress
	3	Biju Pattanaik	23 June 1961	2 October 1963	1	Indian National Congress
	4	Biren Mitra	2 October 1963	21 February 1965	1	Indian National Congress
	5	Sadashiva Tripathy	21 February 1965	8 March 1967	1	Indian National Congress
	6	Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo	8 March 1967	9 January 1971	1	Swatantra Party and Orissa Jana Congress
	7	Biswanath Das	3 April 1971	14 June 1972	1	United Front (Swatantra Party + Utkal Congress + Jharkhand Party)
	8	Nandini Satpathy	14 June 1972	3 March 1973	1st: 14 Jun 1972–03 Mar 1973 2nd: 06 Mar 1974–16 Dec 1976	Indian National Congress
	9	Binayak Acharya	29 December 1976	30 April 1977	1	Indian National Congress
	10	Nilamani Routray	26 June 1977	17 February 1980	1	Janata Party
	11	Janaki Ballabh Pattanaik	9 June 1980	7 December 1989	1st: 09 Jun 1980–10 Mar 1985 2nd: 10 Mar 1985–07 Dec 1989	Indian National Congress
	12	Hemananda Biswal	7 December 1989	5 March 1990	1	Indian National Congress
	(3)	Biju Pattanaik	5 March 1990	15 March 1995	2	Janata Dal
	(11)	Janaki Ballabh Pattanaik	15 March 1995	17 February 1999	3	Indian National Congress
	13	Giridhar Gamang	17 February 1999	6 December 1999	1	Indian National Congress
	(12)	Hemananda Biswal	6 December 1999	5 March 2000	2	Indian National Congress
	14	Naveen Patnaik	5 March 2000	present	1st: 05 Mar 2000–16 May 2004 2nd: 16 May 2004–21 May 2009 3rd: 21 May 2009– 3rd term in progress	Biju Janata Dal

Elections

Main article: Legislative Assembly election results of Odisha

The most recent election was held in 2009. Biju Janata Dal came back to power with a thumping majority by winning 103 seats out of 147 seats. Their former coalition allies, the BJP, won only six seats. The opposition INC also lost 11 seats compared to 2004 elections and was the second largest party.