Naveen Patnaik of Odisha has become the second longest serving chief minister of a state in India with a tenure of 23 years and 139 days on Sunday, surpassing the record of former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu. Patnaik, the five-time Chief Minister of Odisha, took charge on March 5, 2000, and has been holding the post for the last 23 years and 139 days.
Patnaik is now second only to Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, who holds the enviable record of helming a state for the longest time of 24 years and 166 days between December 1994 and May 2019.
Basu left office in 2000 after ruling the eastern state for over 23 continuous years, while Chamling lost the assembly polls in May 2019 in the Himalayan state.
