Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha Assembly Speaker and veteran BJD leader Maheshwar Mohanty was cremated at Puri Swargadwar with full state honour on Tuesday.
The body of Mohanty was taken to his residence and later the party office in Puri before proceeding to the cremation ground amid a massive procession.
He was given a guard of honour by the police forces before his son Sunil Mohanty lit the funeral pyre in the presence of hundreds of supporters, political leaders and relatives.
Mohanty passed away at the age of 67 while undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
The former Speaker was admitted to a private hospital in the State Capital on November 1, 2023, following cardiac problems.
He has held the responsibilities of minister of six different departments of the Odisha government at different times.
He was elected to the Odisha Assembly for the first time in 1995 on a Janata Party ticket.
From 2000 to 2019, he was uninterruptedly elected to the Odisha Assembly on Biju Janata Dal ticket.
In 1973, Maheshwar entered the political arena after being elected general secretary in the student union elections at Puri Samantha Chandrasekhar College. Maheshwar Mohanty, who was the general secretary of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1975, entered active politics after being elected as a councillor of Puri Municipality in 1978.
From 1982 to 1985, he was a board member of the Puri Urban Cooperative Bank. From 1985 to 1990 and from 1992 to 1995, Maheshwar Mohanty was the chairman of the Puri Municipality.
Maheswar served as the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly from 2004 to 2008.
