Kalpataru Das, Rajya Sabha MP who fell from grace of chief minister Naven Patnaik last year over his family's involvement in land grabbing incident last year, passed away today at New Delhi after a brief illness. He was 65 and is survived by his wife and three sons. Das had been ailing for some time and had been admitted to AIIMS on Monday after his condition became critical. The senior BJD leader was first admitted to a hospital in Gurgaon in April this year after bleeding from his nose. A nasal endoscopy had revealed a small tumour between the forehead and inner nasal cavity following which he underwent chemotherapy. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik and union minister for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan have condoled his demise. [related-post] Das, a vice-president of BJD was a former cabinet minister in Naveen Patnaik cabinet and finally a Rajya Sabha MP. He was elected to the Assembly from the Dharmashala constituency four times in succession since 1990. Said to be Naveen's political advisor after the exit of former Rajya Sabha MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra in 2012, Das had inched closer to the CM during the 2014 elections earning the resentment of several of his party colleagues. After the CAG in his audit report of allotment of houses and plots under Bhubaneswar Development Authority’s discretionary quota accused Das and his family members of cornering plots and houses, the tide turned against him. His MLA son Pranab Balbantray was forced to return two such houses after much uproar in the party and outside. In September last year, Das had to resign from the post of BJD's 7-member Parliamentary Party chief after his name came up discretionary quota allotment of houses and plots in Bhubaneswar. Under Bhubaneswar Development Authority’s discretionary quota, Biju Janata Dal leader and leader of BJD Parliamentary Party in Rajya Sabha, Kalpataru Das this evening resigned from his post. Subsequent media reports revealed that Das has managed to grab 40-odd plots and houses in Orissa and Delhi over last 8-9 years. Das was also in the eye of a storm over cornering plots on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar city on the outskirts of the city. He had become more controversial after his photograph with Odisha chit fund scam accused Ranjan Das proposing Naveen's candidature for BJD president's election in 2013 appeared in local newspapers. His body would be flown to Odisha tomorrow morning and taken to Dharamashala for cremation after party colleagues and others pay their last respects here.
