"Naveen is like a poisonous snake hiding in the grass. Nobody knows when and whom he will bite."
-Bijoy Mahapatra, Orissa Gana Parishad president

"I don't have fangs. I don't have venom inside me. I only have love for the people."
-Naveen Patnaik, chief minister

POWER SHIFT: Biju Patnaik's son is now a leader on his own right

Naveen Patnaik has always been quick on the uptake. Even during his early days as chief minister when he was often accused of being elitist and rebuked for his poor knowledge of Oriya, his mother tongue, he was never at a loss for words. Three-and-a-half years down the line the classic one-liners have more punch. What is subject to dinner-table gossip is whether this has anything to do with the famed writer in Patnaik or his maturing as a politician.

Going by other indications, it would seem that the second theory holds more water. The social butterfly who reluctantly stepped into the rough and tumble of politics, now no longer fights shy of hitting back. He is, as an increasing number of people are beginning to acknowledge, a leader in his own right.

It is perhaps this new mode of the chief minister that saw him abruptly walking out of a Saturday afternoon discussion with officials at Kendrapara recently when he learnt of a roof collapse that killed two students and injured 12 others at a high school building at Deyapura, 12 km away. Within minutes, he was at the accident site, ordering an inquiry into the incident and announcing ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh for the bereaved families. The next morning, the officials concerned were summoned to the secretariat despite it being a Sunday. "I have seen the blood of innocent students. Order a random check of schools and hospitals and report back on the quality of construction," he told them.

Over time, he has also proved to be a shrewd politician. Unpredictable, detached, cold-blooded-the epithets describing Patnaik are far from flattering but just as his acid remarks do not take away from his otherwise genial demeanour, these accusations too have done little to dent his general image of being a "Mr Clean". "His USP is that he is not a traditional politician," explains senior minister Damodar Raut. "He is popular because people have become fed up with the usual breed of politicians."

Much of the chief minister's perceived cold-bloodedness centres on his tirade against the corrupt besides those who do not toe the line. Ever since he came to power, 530 officials, including seven IAS, three IPS and five Indian Forest Service officers, have come under the scanner. Powerful ministers like Nalini Mohanty, Kamla Das and Prashant Nanda have been sacked overnight on corruption charges. Patnaik never misses an opportunity to settle scores with his rivals: former finance minister Ramkrushna Patnaik was shifted to agriculture for reasons best known to the chief minister; and former Union minister Dilip Ray was denied a Rajya Sabha ticket for his "scheming ways".

The chief minister is fortunate that the 25-MLA Congress, which is the main Opposition party in the state, is in no position to take on the ruling BJD-BJP combine riddled as it is by factionalism. As for dissidence within the BJD, Patnaik effectively silenced the rebels when he got ministerial berths for those who fell in line both at the Centre and in the state. The decision to revoke the expulsion of Jagannath Mallick after he committed himself to working for the state was also a successful attempt to weaken the rebel camp.

In any case, says Raut, "Neither the Opposition nor any of his rivals can bring any 'believable charge' against the chief minister." For Patnaik, this is said to be a handy lever because despite his "best efforts", the state is yet to make a mark in development. In Bhubaneswar, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said that "the Centre is willing to help the state but it has to work hard". The message was clear: Patnaik has to deliver.

Patnaik's allies agree. Says Balagopal Mishra, a BJP MLA from Bolangir: "As chief minister, Patnaik has neither vision nor wisdom." According to Mishra, who cites many examples to drive home his point, a major portion of the Rs 900 crore received from the Centre for the reconstruction of Orissa after the 1999 super-cyclone has remained unspent. The same is the story with the annual Rs 250 crore aid for the development of the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput poverty zone besides the Rs 450 crore allotted for tribal development. Minister of State for Finance Panchanan Kanungo denies the charges. He claims that the face of Orissa has changed with infrastructure being revived after the cyclone, and floods in 14 districts and drought in 2002.

Patnaik's aides are quick to talk about his Mission Shakti as a measure of his "commitment to development". A programme to empower rural women, it has one lakh members under various action groups. "These empowered women in rural areas will change Orissa," says Patnaik.

This wasn't the man who led the BJD campaign in the 2000 election and surprisingly decimated the opposition. Then, clearly uncomfortable in his native Oriya, he was the butt of several jokes as he toured the state trying to woo voters. Even after he took office following an emphatic victory, his initial days were very tentative, giving every indication that the man who led the campaign from the front was more comfortable in the rarefied atmospheres of Delhi or New York.

The transformation, however, did not take long. Some giveaways of the high life he used to lead pursue him-he still puffs away at State Express 555-but the Doon School product who once counted among his close friends Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the former US first lady, is now fast learning to strike a fine balance between his pampered past and his pragmatic present.