Former Rajya Sabha MP Baishnab Charan Parida passed away on Thursday at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was 77.
He was undergoing treatment of cancer since many days.
Parida was a well-known politician, columnist and a social activist. He had been fighting to bring the Odisha Official Language Act, 1954.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha in July 2010 and his term ended in July 2016.
Born in Jajpur in 1941, Parida was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) from 1960 to 1992. Later he quit CPI due to some differences on application of Marxist ideology in Indian reality.
In 1993, he joined Indian National Congress. Until 1998 he was in Congress but due to his differences with the then State party leadership, he quit the party and joined Samajwadi Party in 1999 as its State President. He was in Samajwadi party until he resigned in 2008 and joined BJD in 2008.
