Bhubaneswar: Former Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly and senior BJD leader Maheswar Mohanty passed away today. He was 67.
As per reports, the former minister breathed his last at a private hospital in the Chandrasekharpur area of Bhubaneswar where he was admitted after he was diagnosed with a mild brain stroke last night.
The 67-year-old BJD leader was elected to Odisha assembly from Puri constituency for five consecutive terms from 1995. Mohanty lost to BJP’s Jayant Sarangi in 2019.
Mohanty served as speaker of the assembly from May 2004 to March 2008. Mohanty held several port-folios like Panchayati Raj, tourism, planning & coordination, law, and revenue and disaster management in Naveen’s cabinet from 2011 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2019.
Puri was Mohanty’s stronghold as he had been continuously winning from the assembly seat since 1995. However, Mohanty’s citadel crumbled in 2019 as his friend-turned-foe Sarangi of BJP defeated him by a slender margin of 4008 votes.
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