Bhubaneswar: Mortal remains of Odisha health minister Naba Das, who succumbed to bullet injury hours after a police ASI pulled the trigger on him at Brajarajnagar in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district, would be consigned to flames at his ancestral village with full state honours. The Odisha government has also declared three-day mourning in the state.
The three-time MLA is survived by wife Minati Das and a son and a daughter.
Let’s trace Naba Das’ political journey from a leader of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the chief of the Odisha Congress to one of the most trusted ministers in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet.
>> An influential leader from Jharsuguda, Naba Das began his political career as youth leader of SFI, the student body of the Communist Party, during his college days at Sambalpur’s Gangadhar Mehr College, where he studied law.
>> He later joined the Congress and became the vice president of Odisha NSUI and Odisha Youth Congress.
>> Naba Das went on to become a prominent leader of the state Congress and served as State Congress Vice President and Working President.
>> He won the first state election from Jharsuguda Assembly constituency in 2009 on a Congress ticket and again in 2014 by defeating BJP candidate Kishore Kumar Mohanty on both occasions. In 2009, Bollywood actors Shakti Kapoor and Ashrani campaigned for him.
>> The businessman-politician had an enviable hold on his constituency and was also credited for ensuring Congress victory during the 2017 Zilla Parishad elections.
>> The long-time Congressman, however, shifted allegiance to BJD in January 2019, months before the twin polls in Odisha. He told then Congress president Rahul Gandhi that the people of his constituency wanted him to join the ruling party.
>> Such was his influence that the BJD agreed to shift veteran leader Kishore Mohanty from Jharsuguda to Brajrajnagar constituency to accommodate him.
>> He roped in Bollywood actors Suniel Shetty and Mahima Chaudhry for his election campaign in 2019, when he won the Jharsuguda seat by defeating BJP’s Dinesh Kumar Jain by a margin of 45699 votes.
>> Naba Das became the health minister in 2019 and retained his portfolio even after Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet overhaul.
>> The 61-year-old was the second richest minister in the state with declared assets worth Rs 34 crore. Das owned a fleet of 80 cars while 65 were registered in his wife’s name, with a total valuation of Rs 15 crore, and three firearms, a revolver valued at Rs 55,000, a rifle worth Rs 1,25,000 and a double barrel gun worth Rs 17,500.
>> He had recently grabbed national headlines for donating an urn made of 1.7 kg gold, besides silver, together worth around Rs 1 crore to a temple in Maharashtra on the auspicious occasion of Triveni Amavasya. He, however, claimed that the entire donation to the Shani Temple at Shinganapur under Ahmednagar district would be around Rs 10 lakh.
>> Naba Das had several flourishing businesses, including mining and transportation.
