East Indian state Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who ruled the region for 24 years, on Wednesday (June 5, 2024) submitted his resignation to Odisha governor Raghubar Das in Bhubaneswar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was an alliance partner of Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal for several years, will form the government in the state after recording a landslide victory in the Assembly polls.
Clinching 78 seats, the BJP dominated the show while BJD lagged behind with 51 seats.
Out of the 147 seats in the Odisha Assembly, any party or coalition bagging 74 seats can form the government.
The Congress won 14 seats.
Former CM Patnaik himself managed to win the Hinjli seat by a slender margin of 4,636 votes.
The BJP also dominated the general polls results in the state by clinching 20 out of the 21 seats.
Patnaik, who became the Chief Minister for the first term in 2000, was the second longest serving CM of the country after Pawan Kumar Chamling.
Chamling remained the Chief Minister of Sikkim from 1994 to 2019.