Janaki Ballabh Patnaik


Janaki Ballabh Patnaik; was an Indian politician who had been Governor of Assam from 2009 to 2014. A leader of the Indian National Congress, he was Chief Minister of Odisha from 1980 to 1989 and again from 1995 to 1999, holding that post for the longest time on record before Naveen Patnaik.
After the completion of his early education at Khurda High School, he passed his B.A. degree in Sanskrit from the Utkal University in 1947 and passed his M.A. degree in Political Science from the Banaras Hindu University in 1949. In 1950, he became the President of the Odisha state unit of the youth wing of the Congress. In 1980, he became the Union Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Labour. The construction of New Jagannath Sadak is one of his major contribution to the transportation and tourism of Odisha.

Controversy

He was involved in the Anjana Mishra rape case.

Death

He died on 21 April 2015 aged 88 at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. On Monday, 20 April 2015, he had gone to attend the convocation of Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, of which he was chancellor, and also visited the Lord Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala. Later in the night, he complained of severe chest pain at and was subsequently shifted to Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences where he died at around 3:00 AM. on Tuesday. He leaves behind a legacy of having translated the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita into his mother tongue, as he was a Sanskrit-Odia scholar.