Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been elected as the best performing CM at the state level with 51 per cent respondents from the state rating him as the best performing chief minister in ‘Mood of the Nation’ poll conducted by premier weekly English magazine of the nation India Today.  

Patnaik, the third CM to win five consecutive terms, has maintained the image of a “clean and honest” politician while staying away from national limelight and focusing on state affairs, the magazine reported.

Patnaik’s social welfare schemes have led to his popularity chart in Odisha soaring — a reason behind his BJD government successfully keeping the BJP and Congress at bay for two decades. To counter the BJP’s Hindutva politics, he has recently been making an emotional pitch based on the Odia identity, it added.

Arvind Kejriwal is second on the list, with 41 per cent respondents from Delhi giving him positive rating, followed by Yogi Adityanath (39%), Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray (35%) and Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao (35%).