Bhubaneswar: Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, former Governor of Odisha, breathed his last today.

Governor Raghubar Das and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi condoled the death of Bhandare.

Bhandare was born on December 10, 1928. He was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) from Maharashtra and a former Rajya Sabha member for three terms (from 1980 to 1982, 1982 to 1988, and 1988 to 1994).

As a legal practitioner, the former Governor had practiced as a senior Advocate of the apex court and was president of the Supreme Court Bar Association for two terms.

Bhandare was appointed Governor of Odisha on August 19, 2007 and was sworn in on August 21, 2007. On 9 June 2008, he marked the second National Daughters Day of India (Nandini Diwas).

The former Governor continued in office until SC Jamir was appointed on March 9, 2013.

It is pertinent to mention here that Bhandare had penned his autobiography titled ‘The Arc of Memory: My Life and Times’, which was released in March 2024.