Bhubaneswar: The former minister and veteran BJD leader Damodar Rout is no more. It is an immeasurable loss for Odisha politics. His death triggered an outpouring of grief. Apart from President of India Droupadi Murmu, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and many more leaders cutting across party lines mourned the demise of Rout.
Ommcom News sheds light on the political stint of Rout who fell seriously ill after suffering a massive heart attack on March 18 and was later declared brain dead.
Born to Kapil Charan Rout and Sneha Rout on July 2, 1942, Rout was a veterinary doctor by profession before becoming a politician. Rout joined politics in the 70s after being influenced by Biju Patnaik.
Damodar Rout was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly on a Janata Party ticket for the first time in 1977. In 1980, he was elected to the Odisha Assembly on a Janata Party (Secular) ticket. In 1990, he again won the Assembly elections on the Janata Dal ticket.
However, the senior leader was defeated in 1995. He then went on to win the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Assembly elections in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014, respectively.
Rout was elected MLA five times from Ersama and twice from Paradip Assembly constituencies from 1977 to 2019. He also held portfolios as minister of seven departments under the late CM Biju Patnaik and CM Naveen Patnaik’s tenure.
Rout was entrusted with departments like Information & Public Relations, Community Development & Social Welfare, Panchayati Raj, Women and Child Development, Culture, Agriculture, Fisheries & Animal Resource Development, Health & Family Welfare, MSME, Excise and Public Enterprise in Odisha government between 1979 and 2017.
Besides, Rout worked as a House Committee member for Cyclone/Food and Environment from 2000 to 2001.
However, BJD expelled the veteran leader from the party for his anti-party statements in 2017. This led him to join the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 14, 2019, in Delhi and contested the 2019 elections from Paradip on BJP ticket but lost.
He announced his retirement from electoral politics, marking the end of his 45-year-long political career in 2019.
In the meantime, his son Sambit Routray joined the BJD and was elected to the Assembly in 2019. The Naveen Patnaik-led party revoked the expulsion of the veteran leader on January 1, 2024.
