Raghunath Patnaikpasses away at 87

Koraput: Senior Congress leader and former minister Raghunath Patnaik died at a private hospital at Jeypore on Thursday. He was 87 and is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter. He was unwell for the past few days. On Wednesday, he was admitted to the hospital, family sources said. Patnaik's mortal was brought to the Congress Bhavan at Jeypore where people paid their last respects.
In 1954, at the age of 25, Patnaik was elected as councillor of Jeypore municipality and was the chairperson from 1956 to 59.During his tenure, the traditional oil lamp posts of Jeypore were replaced with electricity street lights. He joined the Congress in 1954 and was first elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly in 1961 from Jeypore assembly segment. He represented the seat in 1974, 1977, 1980, 1990 and 1995. Denied a Congress ticket for Jeypore, he contested the assembly election in 2000 as an Independent and lost the election to the BJD candidate. In 2004, Patnaik again contested the assembly polls from Jeypore on a Congress ticket but was defeated by the ruling BJD's Rabi Narayan Nanda. With a political career spanning nearly five decades, Patnaik had held law, finance and panchayati raj portfolios in the state government.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra, BJP state president Basanta Panda, BJD MP Baijayant Panda, among several others, expressed grief over Patnaik' s death.