Flush with victory, Patnaik appears on the giant screen in TV Today's election analysis programme over Doordarshan. ``Pappu,'' gushes socialite anchorwoman Madhu Trehan,``how does it feel?''

The familiar address said it all. Patnaik may have pulled off a political coup in Orissa but until very recently, he was better known as Pappu, effete international jetsetter, friend of Jackie Kennedy Onassis (she was his editor-publisher), Germaine Greer and Mick Jagger, author of a book on medicinal plants which has been on the bestseller list in three continents, brother of celebrity writer, Gita Mehta of Karma Cola fame. And, as this52-year-old single liked to describe himself, ``a bachelor of arts''.

But his dilettantish lifestyle ended rather abruptly when his father died last year and he decided to dabble in politics. He won the family seat of Aska with ease in a by-election and then came the stunning victory for his party in March. Suddenly, he seemed destined for bigger things. Pappu metamorphosed into Patnaik as he traded in his Doon School accent for Oriya. He had found a new vocation.

Three months later, the shine of his unexpected electoral success has worn off considerably. He failed to repeat his dramatic Lok Sabha performance in last month's state Assembly by-elections. Then, his nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls lost, thanks to cross-voting by his own MLAs. Today, his fledgling BJD is ridden with dissension and buffetted with rumours of an impending split.

Clearly, something has gone wrong somewhere. His critics say he is a political zero and should go back to the cocktail circuit. His friends insist that he is merelyinexperienced and is in politics to stay.

There is little doubt that Patnaik has ridden the crest of his father's popularity -- which translated into a sympathy wave after his death -- to get to where he is today. Socially and politically, his lineage and family connections opened all the right doors, giving him an enviable headstart.

It is also true that Patnaik stayed well away from politics till Biju's death and is the political ``bachcha'' his critics say he is. According to his friends, however, his cynical disdain for his father's career was a carefully cultivated veneer to hide his deep interest in it, a defence mechanism against Biju's determination that his children carve a life far removed from the passion which swallowed up his millions. Two of them followed their father's orders. The older son, Prem ``Guddu'', is a businessman. His sister, Gita, married successful international publisher Sonny Mehta and earned a name for herself through her books.

Naveen was the only one who never quitesettled down and seemed to drift aimlessly through a whirl of parties with the beautiful people in different parts of the world, writing the occasional book, and building up an amazing network of contacts in all the right places. It was only after Biju died that he finally admitted to wanting to try his hand at politics.

Unfortunately for him, his desire to lay claim to Biju's legacy is challenged by a host of his father's followers as well as the BJP, which is trying to appropriate the strong anti-Congress base in Orissa. To his credit, he seems to have won the last round against his detractors who openly defied him in the Rajya Sabha elections last month.

He retaliated by suspending five of them. Although his action almost split the party, Patnaik stood his ground. The message was clear: the ``soft-spoken and indecisive'' leader can be as tough and as unpredictable as his father was. Patnaik eventually revoked the suspension orders but his detractors are now shy of criticising him openly -- for themoment at least. Prominent rebel Amar Prasad Satpathy maintains that at no point was Patnaik's leadership questioned.

But Patnaik has also run into trouble over the demand by his party to have Orissa declared a special-category state. In fact, the chairman of the political affairs committee of the party, Bijoy Mohapatra, has been vocal in his criticism of Patnaik for failing to bargain hard enough with the Vajpayee government on this.

Mohapatra's views are shared by Biju's law minister, Narasingha Misra, who feels the younger Patnaik lacks his father's persuasive abilities and flair to get his way. ``Biju Patnaik could get anything from the Centre but his son seems to be just the opposite,'' he says.

Another sticky point is his upbringing away from Orissa. His ties with the state were limited to occasional visits to Cuttack and Bhubaneswar during his father's lifetime. The only real link is ``Naveen Niwas'', the sprawling house Biju built opposite the Bhubaneswar airport. It was named after Naveenbecause he was the only one to have been born in Orissa. His friends, on the other hand, point out that ever since he plunged into active politics, he has spent almost all his time in his home state, giving up his old ways.

Although publicly, the swipes at Patnaik have stopped after the flak over the suspensions, the whispers continue behind his back. His critics in the BJD accuse him of being surrounded and guided by a coterie. The BJP feels that he simply does not have the political acumen to run a party and has started a campaign to co-opt him into the party. This has fuelled anxieties in the BJD that Patnaik will ``sell out'' to the BJP and kill the newly-formed regional party.

Patnaik's friends say that the alliance with the BJP is temporary. It was prompted by expediency -- a stop-gap arrangement until such time as the former jetsetter found his feet in politics. ``He is very, very anti-BJP,'' declares one friend.

But Patnaik has miles to go before he can claim to have arrived on the Orissapolitical scene. Winning the elections in March gave him political legitimacy but the real test of his skills in the public arena has only just begun. He will now have to consolidate and build on his gains. Before he gets to inherit Biju's mantle, he will have to prove that he is indeed his father's son.