Bhubaneswar: Veteran tribal leader and four-time former MLA from Biramitrapur, George Tirkey, passed away at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar late Friday night. He was 67.

Tirkey, who had been ailing for the past few months, was admitted to Rourkela’s Ispat General Hospital on Friday after his health deteriorated. As his condition worsened, he was shifted to Apollo Hospital in Bhubaneswar around 4 pm, where he breathed his last later in the night. His son, Rohit Joseph Tirkey—current MLA from Biramitrapur—and other family members were present at the hospital.

Family sources said his last rites will be performed at his ancestral village Jhunamur under Biramitrapur police limits in Sundargarh district on Saturday afternoon.

A prominent tribal and labour leader, Tirkey began his career as a banker before moving into politics. He played a key role in strengthening the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Odisha, especially in Sundargarh district.

He was first elected to the Odisha Assembly in 1995 and 2000 on a JMM ticket, later returning as an Independent in 2009. In 2014, he contested and won on a Samata Kranti Dal ticket. Tirkey also made two unsuccessful attempts at the Lok Sabha polls from Sundargarh.

In the later years of his career, he joined the Congress and subsequently the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). After his son’s victory from Biramitrapur as the BJD candidate in 2024, Tirkey gradually withdrew from active politics.