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Bhubaneswar: Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee along with other senior political leaders unveiled a pictorial biography of legendary political leader and former Chief Minister of Odisha, Biju Patnaik on his birth centenary celebration at Utkal Mandap here on Saturday.
The pictorial biography of the legendary statesman was jointly released by Mukherjee and a galaxy of bigwig politicians including Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, former Deputy Prime Minister-cum-BJP veteran L.K. Advani and CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.
Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly Narasingha Mishra, senior BJP leaders Bijoy Mohapatra, Biswabhusan Harichandan and former BJD vice president Prafulla Ghadei also attended the event.
Hundreds of Biju Patnaik’s followers also attended the unveiling ceremony of the book authored by eminent writer and researcher Sundar Ganesan.The pictorial biography encapsulates rare photographs of Biju Babu’s life.
Senior journalist and columnist Prabhu Chawla reviewed the biography while the book release ceremony was presided over by Biju Patnaik’s son and CM Naveen Patnaik.
Biju Patnaik, the doyen of post-independent Odisha politics and third CM of the state was born on 5 March 1916 to Lakshminarayan and Ashalata Patnaik.
Ms Kalinga