BJD candidate for the Patkura Assembly seat Bed Prakash Agarwalla passed away following prolonged illness here on Saturday morning.
As a result, the poll in the constituency is to be countermanded by the Election Commission. A by-election is to be held within six months.
Importantly, BJP nominee Bijay Mohapatra was the main rival in this constituency in Kendrapada district against Agarwalla, the sitting MLA who was seeking reelection.
Agarwalla, a six-time MLA and a former Minister in the Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik Governments, was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar after he was nominated as the BJD Patkura candidate.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his deep grief over the veteran politician’s demise, saying it was “an irreparable loss to the BJD as well as to me”.
Condolence messages for Agarwalla poured in from all quarters cutting across the party lines following his death. Prominent among those who mourned his death were BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Congress State president Niranjan Patnaik, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra and BJD State general secretary Bijay Nayak.
Agarwalla, a close associate of Biju Patnaik, was active in politics since the 1970s.
He was elected to the Assembly on a Utkal Congress ticket from the Kendrapada seat in 1974. Later, he was a legislator of Janata Party and Janata Dal in 1977 and 1990, respectively, also from Kendrapada.
He had joined the BJP and was elected to the Assembly from Kendrapada in 2000. He represented Patkura twice being elected on BJD ticket in the 2009 and 2014 elections.