BJD MLA & former Odisha Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro passes away

Former Odisha Speaker & Digapahandi MLA, Surjya Narayan Patro passed away at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. He was 75.

As per reports, Patro was admitted to the hospital this afternoon after his health condition deteriorated.

Patro was a seven-time legislator and the sitting BJD MLA of Digapahandi.

Patro was born on December 24, 1948 at Berhampur in Ganjam. He did his BSc and LLB followed by social service before joining politics. In 1977, Surjya Patro became the Municipal Councillor of Berhampur. 

He won the Assembly elections for seven consecutive terms. He was elected as an MLA for the first time in 1990 from Mohana from where he was elected for four consecutive terms till 2009. He contested and won from the Janata Dal in the first two terms and then won from the same constituency on BJD tickets. 

Since 2009, he had been the MLA of Digapahandi for three consecutive terms. As a minister in the Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik governments, he held various important portfolios. He was the Minister of Forest and Environment, Energy, Tourism, IT, Culture, Revenue, Information and Public Relations, Food Supply and Consumer Welfare.
 
Surjya Narayan Patro took over as the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly in 2019 and resigned in 2022.