Seven-time Pipili MLA, former Minister and BJD strongman Pradeep Maharathy passed away due to Covid during wee hours of Sunday. He was 65.
Maharathy was one among the 51 MLAs of the State who had had been infected with the coronaviurs. He had earlier been discharged from the hospital as he recovered from the disease.
However, he was admitted to a private hospital again and put under ventilator support.
Born on July 4, 1955 at Khorapada village under Puri district’s Pipili area, Maharathy started his career as a student leader being elected as the Students’ Union President of the SCS College, Puri. Maharathy was a Senate Member of the Utkal University. Later he joined politics and was elected to the State Assembly first time in 1985 on a Janata Party ticket. He was associated with former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
He was active in Cooperative Movement and was President of MARKFED, District Central Cooperative Bank and other cooperative institutions.Since 2000, he had been continuously winning the Pipili Assembly seat on a BJD tickets. He was Government Chief Whip in the Assembly. Later he held Ministerial portfolios of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry and Panchayati Raj.During his tenure as Agriculture Minister, Odisha had received Krishi Karman Award consecutively for four years.
His body was taken to the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA), where Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Kesari Arukh, MLAs Debi Prasad Mishra and Pranab Prakash Das laid flower wreaths on the body.
The body was later to taken to his farmhouse at Pipili and then to native village Khorapada. As the hearse carrying the body headed towards Pipili from Bhubaneswar, the stretch of the road reverberated with ‘Pradeep Maharathy Amar Rahe’ slogans chanted by thousands of constituents.
The body was taken in procession to Swargadwar, Puri. A large number of his supporters and his family members bid a tearful adieu to him as his body was cremated at the Swargadwara in Puri in the afternoon. He was accorded State honour before his son Rudra Pratap Maharathy lit the funeral pyre.His daughter Pallavi along with her husband was present.