Puri: Maheshwar Mohanty was among the popular faces in Odisha politics. He has been an MLA from Puri constituency for five times. At different times, he has held the responsibilities of minister of six different departments of the Odisha government and was the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly.
He was elected to the Odisha Assembly for the first time in 1995 on a Janata Party ticket and with the blessings and support of Biju Babu.
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.
Maheshwar proved to be impregnable in politics till 2019. He helped to strengthen the party as the president of the BJD Puri district unit.
With his demise today, Odisha along with Puri district lost a politician with 50 years of experience from a student leader to Assembly Speaker.
