Puri: Mortal remains of Jayanti Patnaik, former Congress MP and wife of late Odisha chief minister J B Patnaik was consigned to flames at Swargadwar here today.
The funeral pyre was lit by her eldest son Prithvi Ballav Patnaik.
Former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik, the deceased’s son-in-law and BJD MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Prof Hare Krushna Satpathy and several Congress leaders and workers were present to bid farewell to the departed leader.
Senior Congress leader and first chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Patnaik passed away in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
She was suffering from old-age-related aliment and was taken to a private hospital as she did not respond in the evening. She was declared dead by the doctors.
Patnaik was born on April 7, 1932, at Aska in Ganjam district and completed her graduation in Sociology from Shailabala Women’s Autonomous College in Cuttack. She did her post-graduation from Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai.
Her husband and former Odisha chief minister and ex-Governor of Assam J B Patnaik had passed away in 2015.
She is survived by a son and two daughters. She was married to J B Patnaik in 1953 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from both Cuttack and Berhampur.