Socialist leader Kishan Patnaik deadBHUBANESWAR, PTI:
Socialist leader and former MP Kishan Patnaik passed away here on Monday following a brief illness. He was 74.Patnaik was admitted into the Nilachal Hospital here five days ago after suffering from fever and was subsequently shifted to the ICU as his condition worsened.Hospital sources said Patnaik, who is survived by his wife, had an attack of meningitis. The end came at around 12.30 PM.The leader, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Sambalpur constituency in 1962, was involved in several popular agitations and often highlighted the plight of farmers and poverty in the western districts.His body was taken to the Lohia academy here where it would be kept till tomorrow for people to pay their last respects.Mr Patnaik, a disciple of socialist thinker Ram Manohar Lohia, was very popular among old socialists of Karnataka. M D Nanjundaswamy and former Karnataka Backward Class Commission Chairman Ravivarma Kumar were among his friends. He was involved in many farmers’ movements, including that of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha. He was in Bangalore last month to participate in a seminar on parallel politics organised by the D R Nagaraj Memorial Trust.