Kishore Mohanty, who served four terms as Odisha legislator and as Speaker, passes away

A heart attack took the life of former Odisha Assembly Speaker Kishore Mohanty, a senior BJD leader. He was 63. Sources said Mohanty, a four-time MLA, was hospitalized for a heart attack, after which he passed away while being treated.

Having served as a legislator four times, Mohanty was first elected from Jharsuguda to the Odisha Assembly in 1990 on a Janata Dal ticket. He was also elected from Jharsuguda in 2000 and 2004. The BJP candidate Radha Rani Panda was defeated by him in the Brajrajnagar Assembly constituency in the 2019 election. Besides serving as the chief whip, he was chairman of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) from 2009-2012.

In the wake of Mohanty's sudden death, a wide range of political leaders, including Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Governor of Andhra Pradesh Biswa Bhusan Harichandan and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, expressed their deep sorrow.