Bhubaneswar: In the last few days Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been in news for all the good reasons. Though he remains out of bounds for the mainstream media, the social media has been stormed with tweets and posts congratulating and praising the efforts of the most popular chief minister of the Country. At a time when the pandemic has hit the country hard and the fight is still going on, Cyclone Yaas came as a challenge for Odisha. The well planned management of the Cyclone and achieving mission zero casualty have made the netizens realize the emergence of Odisha.
The management of Cyclone Yaas by Odisha has received widespread accolades from national and international agencies. The head of UNDRR Mami Mizutori praised the Chief Minister and said that the state has the necessary political commitment to build up a robust and well-resourced disaster management authority. Within hours of the publication of the report, the netizens started praising the Chief Minister and #UNLaudsNaveenAgain started trending in the tweeter at the second spot. What is of more amazing is #UNLaudsNaveenAgain remained at the helm for almost 12 to 14 hours on twitter.
Before that also when Prime minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha and undertook an aerial survey of the cyclone damaged areas, #NaveenPatnaik was trending on top. The reason why Naveen was on the top of the trending list was his message to the Prime Minister that Odisha wont burden the center at the peak of Covid-19 pandemic and manage it through own resources to tide over the crisis. This moved the netizens and within minutes #NaveenPatnaik started trending. Naveen’s message on twitter regarding this received nearly one lakh likes and more than thirteen thousand retweets within a few hours, which shows his growing popularity on the micro blogging site. The No Need For Funds message went viral and thousands of users praised the Chief Minister for his best decision. Another hashtag that has been actively used by the netizens is #OdishaFightsYaas. Ever since the cyclone started moving towards Odisha, #OdishaFightsYaas started trending because of its preparedness to face the challenge. After the cyclone crossed the coast and the state achieved its Mission Zero Causality, #Naveen4OdishaAlways started trending at the top.
Coincidentally, Naveen also topped the charts when a voting by noted journalist Prabhu Chawla in the third week of May decided that Naveen Patnaik is the Best Chief Minister of the country in managing the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the voting, Naveen Patnaik left behind stalwart states such as Karnataka, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. This shows that how Naveen is slowly becoming the darling of the netizens. Although he keeps a low profile and the state gets negligible space in the national media, the craze for Naveen is growing by leaps and bounds.
From September 2015, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has more than three million followers in his personal twitter handle @Naveen_Odisha. Also he has a good following in Facebook too. The state which is well known for its calmness and serenity is also known for the humbleness of its leader Naveen Patnaik. In this digital age, when mainstream media is being relegated to the back seat by social media, one cannot ignore the trends. As the social media is not limited to a particular group or thought and is accessible to all classes and masses, it represents and illustrates a true picture of the people’s perception. Hence, Naveen is still the numero uno and his popularity is gaining day by day is the reality that nobody can challenge. He stays the best Chief Minister in the country in governing and developing the state, building the nation and above all taking care of his four and half crore family members.