Raghunath Patnaik was an Indian politician and a veteran leader of the Indian National Congress. Patnaik was born in a village near

Jeypore Jeypore is one of the largest towns and a place of historical significance in Koraput district in the Indian state of Odisha. It was established by Vir Vikram Dev in the mid 17th century. The kingdom was defeated by the East India Company in ...

in the district of Koraput in Odisha. Known as a 'Gentleman Politician' in Odisha, he has been associated in active politics since a very early age and has been working as an active worker of the congress party since then. In his political career that spanned across nearly six decades, he has won several elections and has been elected as a member of the municipality, chairman of the

municipality and MLA from

. He has represented the

constituency six times in the Odisha legislative assembly and besides being the Leader of Opposition in the assembly has worked as a

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

for

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

, Law, Panchaytiraj departments of Government of Odisha several times. He was also Chairman, Law Revision Committee. He was elected as the member of urban local body of

for the first time at the age of 21 and was elected as the chairman of

municipality at the age of 25. During his chairmanship in municipality the electric street lights were introduced in

replacing the manual oil lamp posts. Establishment of Govt. Women's College and construction of Upper Kolab dam are few among his contributions in the development of the region. Patnaik died on May 12, 2016, following a brief illness. He was 89.

References

People from Jeypore Odisha politicians 2016 deaths Year of birth missing Indian National Congress politicians from Odisha {{Odisha-INC-politician-stub