IT’S unthinkable that Comrade Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has departed from our midst. It causes deep pain.  He wasn’t just like a brother, there was real brotherhood between us. We both chose to tread the same path.

His concern for the Party was above everything else even under acute illness. He thought about how to handle the attacks against the Party till his last days. He insisted on his decision to voluntarily step down from the Party secretaryship when he felt he was unable to discharge its full time responsibilities.

COMRADE Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was much more than a colleague to me. Senior to me by two years, he was as close to me as a brother in a relationship spanning over five decades. It dates back to 1972-73 when we worked together as colleagues and office bearers of the SFI at the state level. His end has come now, as we were working together simultaneously at the state and national levels.

RAJEEV Jha, a senior colleague in the editorial team of Loklahar, died of a sudden cardiac arrest on the intervening night of August 10-11. He suffered a massive heart attack suddenly and without any pre-symptoms and did not even get a chance to reach the nearest hospital. He was over 70 years old.

RICH tributes were paid at  Bhubaneswar in respect to the memory of Comrade Sivaji Patnaik, veteran leader of  CPI(M) and toiling people of Odisha. Comrade Patnaik breathed his last at the age of 92 after a brief illness in a hospital in Bhubaneswar on  May 23.

 In a state-level condolence meeting held in Institution of Engineers Hall of  Bhubaneswar on June 10, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary CPI(M), Surjyakanta Mishra, Member of Polit Bureau with hundreds of Party workers joined the condolence meeting.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on May 24

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses deep grief at the death of a veteran leader of the Party, Sivaji Patnaik. Patnaik was a former member of the Central Committee of the Party and also a former secretary of its Odisha state committee. He died on May 23, 2022. He was 92 years old.