Biju Janata Dal leader and Chief Minister of Orissa Naveen Patnaik walks to meet the media in Bhubaneshwar on May 16, 2009. (AP)
The BJD, after breaking away from an 11-year-old alliance with the BJP, swept both the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls by a margin that's taken everyone by surprise.
Many say the sweep is thanks to Naveen Patnaik's clean image. Others say its his pro-poor schemes like cheap rice and the lack of a credible alternative.
At any rate, Naveen has become the first chief minister in the state to win three times in a row.
"I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity that the people of my state are showing the BJD," he says.
The BJP, which had promised to teach BJD a lesson for what it called betrayal, has had to bite the dust. Except in riot-torn Kandhmal, where the party won 2 of the 3 assembly seats. The Congress, which was hoping to win at least 50 seats, managed only half that number.
Taken aback by the BJD's victory, many senior leaders of the BJP and the Congress have alleged that the party used unfair means.
Says Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik: "We have serious suspicion that enough money has been spent in the election and tampering of the EVM machines also. With these methods they manipulated and with more seats and with good margins."
Naveen Patnaik has reiterated that he will not support a Congress-led government at the Centre.