Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Maheswar Mohanty, a former speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and minister in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet, passed away on Tuesday in a Bhubaneswar private hospital. He was sixty-seven. Mohanty was admitted to the hospital and treated for his sudden illness on October 31. He had been there for a week. His son Sunil Mohanty had denied any illness, despite reports that he had a mild brain stroke.
Mohanty is a lawyer by profession who earned his MA in political science from Banaras Hindu University and his LLB from Utkal University. From 2004 to 2008, Mohanty presided over the Odisha Assembly as its speaker. He was the Puri Assembly Constituency’s five-time winner. Of those, Mohanty won four times in a row on a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ticket and once on a Janata Dal ticket. Mohanty, also referred to as the Vishwakarma of Odisha served as president and ex-officio member of numerous non-political organisations. In addition, he held the position of Puri Municipality Chairman.
