Chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik, who has been travelling across Odisha in a special election vehicle ahead of the state assembly and Lok Sabha elections, spoke to Padma Rao Sundarji at his home in Bhubaneswar about what makes him popular, being equidistant from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, and why he is confident that his government will be re-elected in 2019. Edited excerpts:
From a political novice to one of the country’s longest-serving CMs, you have now been in power for nearly two decades and never lost an election. Opinion polls show that the BJP is making strides in Odisha, but people still back you as the CM. What explains your popularity?
Our government has been pro-poor, progressive and people-oriented. We have lifted about 80 lakh people out of poverty — Odisha has had the sharpest drop in the country. Be it our Mamta scheme for mothers, or Jaga for urban slum-dwellers, our initiatives are progressive and their main focus is the people. And if acts have to be amended, we do that as well.