Bhubaneswar, 13 February (H.S.): Former Union Minister Kanhu Charan Lenka passed away on Friday at the age of 86. He breathed his last at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Lenka was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha in 1988 and served as a Member of Parliament until 1994. During his tenure in Parliament, he held the portfolios of Minister of State for Railways and Agriculture in the Union government led by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao.

At the state level, the senior Congress leader represented the Choudwar Assembly Constituency.

Born in 1939, Lenka began his political career in 1957 by joining the Congress Seva Dal. He remained associated with the Indian National Congress for nearly four decades. Between 1981 and 1994, he served as an All India Congress Committee observer in several states, including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Haryana, and Karnataka.

Lenka was known for his steadfast loyalty to the party leadership and stood firmly with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during both the 1969 and 1978 splits in the Congress. At the time, he was serving as the General Secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda