Naveen Patnaik meets visitors at Naveen Nivas. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, June 17: For the middle-aged liftman at the state secretariat it was too much of a surprise when the other day chief minister Naveen Patnaik suddenly turned towards him and asked with a polite smile: “Kemiti acchanti, bhala? (How are you, fine)?”

The man was speechless for a few seconds before replying with a sheepish grin: “Agyan bhal (Yes sir, I am fine).” It was perhaps the first occasion in the past 12 years when the chief minister, who daily takes the lift to his third-floor office in the building, had engaged in small talk with him.

The change that Naveen’s persona has undergone in the few weeks since the abortive coup attempt against him is the talk of the town.

Naveen Nivas has become the focus of all activities these days with party leaders getting easy access for the first time. The chief minister is meeting them personally to discuss party issues and intervening even in small matters.

Last week, Khurda district president Ganesh Jagdev came calling with a group of workers to apprise the chief minister of the activities of rebels. Naveen was closeted with them for over half an hour, following which he asked Jagdev to keep a watch on the situation. “We had not expected him to give us so much of time. The change in his attitude is a pleasant surprise,” said the young leader from Khurda.

Naveen also met a group of leaders from Sambalpur, assuring them of his personal intervention to sort out the problems besetting the Burla Notified Area Council where a tug of war has been going on between the incumbent chairperson and a rebel group of the BJD. “Wait for a month, I will sort it out. Don’t fight among yourselves,” the chief minister reportedly told the group, who went back happy.

Even ordinary supplicants, who once used to be turned away by securitymen from the gates of Naveen Nivas, are now being treated with respect. On Saturday, 40-year-old Keshab Chandra Khatua from Gania of Daspalla waited outside the chief minister’s residence for a response to his request for help in the treatment of his brother Arun, who has been diagnosed with a heart condition. “I am carrying a letter from BJD MP Rudra Madhab Ray. They were courteous enough to collect it from me and send it in. Now, I am waiting for a reply,” said a happy Khatua whose fears of being turned away from the gates of Naveen Nivas were proved wrong.

“He is certainly a different man, much more free and personal in his interactions with people. The aloofness of the past is gone,” said a BJD leader, who argued that the change was on account of the realisation that Naveen’s growing distance from the partymen was helping the rebels.

The change has perhaps also been noticed by Naveen’s former confidant Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, who allegedly led the coup attempt against him. Mohapatra, who is spending time in isolation these days, recently remarked that he was happy to see that the chief minister was beginning to recognise his MLAs.