Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik paid his last respects to former MLA V Sugnana Kumari Deo, who passed away early Saturday morning, at BJD office in Bhubaneswar.
The mortal remains of Deo, a veteran BJD leader and 10-time former MLA, were flown in a special aircraft from Chennai to the party office, Sankha Bhawan, in the city in the evening.
The Chief Minister expressed his condolences and called her demise an irreparable loss. Several BJD leaders and workers also paid their respects to her.
Later, Deo’s mortal remains were taken to the Odisha Assembly where the Speaker and MLAs paid their last respects. The last rites of Deo will be performed at the royal cremation ground in Khallikote on Sunday.
The 87-year-old, a member of the erstwhile Khallikote royal family, had breathed her last at 12.44 am, hours after the Chief Minister and other senior party leaders visited her at the private hospital in Chennai, where she was undergoing treatment, on Friday night.
Born on August 5, 1937, Deo was first elected to the Odisha Assembly in 1963. She was an eight-time MLA from Khallikote and a two-time MLA from Kabisuryanagar. She was elected as MLA in 1963, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014.
She was respected by leaders cutting across party lines and used to be addressed as ‘Khallikote Rani’, having married the erstwhile royal scion of Khallikote late Purna Chandra Mardaraj Deo.
