Former Speaker and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Maheswar Mohanty, 67, passed away here at a private hospital on Tuesday morning.

He was under treatment after he suffered a brain stroke on October 31.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, governor Raghubar Das and others paid homage to the late leader.

A lawyer by profession, Mohanty, who hailed from Puri, was one of the prominent faces of the BJD from Puri district. A five-time MLA, Mohanty was first elected to the Odisha Assembly in 1995 from the Janata Dal ticket. Later, he represented the Odisha Assembly from the BJD in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014. He lost to the BJP by a slender margin in the 2019 Assembly election. Mohanty served as the Speaker of the Odisha Assembly from 2004 to 2008.

Mohanty is survived by his wife and two sons.