Senior BJD leader and former Minister Kalindi Charan Behera passed away at a private hospital here on Wednesday. He was 71. Behera was suffering from septicemia and died of multi organ failure at about 7.30 am. His body was taken to his Nayapalli residence here before being taken to his native village in Salepur for cremation in the afternoon.
leaders of political parties, friends, well-wishers and followers arrived at the hospital for a last glimpse of the departed leader. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was among the dignitaries who visited his residence here and paid homage to him. “He had enormous experience of administration and organisational matters. In his death, the State lost an experienced politician,” he said.
Behera was elected to the Assembly five times, first as a Janata Party candidate from the Salepur constituency in 1977. He went on to win from the seat three times more as a Janata Dal candidate in 1990 and as a BJD candidate in 2000 and 2004. In 2009, he was fielded by the party from the Cuttack Sadar constituency while his son Chandrasarathi Behera was given the ticket for his old constituency.
The veteran leader, however, had been sulking since being denied the BJD ticket in the 2014 Assembly elections on the grounds of ‘old age’. Behera had held several important portfolios in the Council of Ministers, first under the late Biju Patnaik and then under Naveen Patnaik. Behera, who was a professor before taking the plunge into politics, was also a writer of repute and took a keen interest in socio-cultural affairs.