Congress veteran and former Minister Habibullah Khan passed away a Visakhapatnam hospital on Saturday after prolonged illness. He was 81. Khan, who had started his political career in 1961 as a Sarpanch of Taragam, unstoppably won the Nabarangpur Assembly seat for eight times from 1971 to 2004.
He was elected as an Independent candidate in 1971 and on a Swatantra Party ticket in the subsequent poll. Since his third term, he had been a Congress candidate.Senior Congress leaders Niranjan Patnaik and Dr Rama Chandra Khuntia, among many other leaders deeply mourned Khan’s death.