Ras Behari Behera

Ras Behari Behera, also known as Rasabihari or Ras Bihari Behera, was an Odia politician, novelist and cultural organiser from Kalahandi district in Odisha. He served twice as a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly for Koksara, once as Member of Parliament for Kalahandi, and as a state minister for agriculture, cooperation and tribal affairs. Beyond politics he wrote novels, essays and travel literature in Odia, won the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award, and helped found cultural bodies that promoted writers and artists in western Odisha. He died at his residence in Bhawanipatna on 4 November 2026 after a prolonged illness. He was 88.

Behera was born on 12 April 1938 in Mahichala village under Junagarh in Kalahandi district, the son of Prasanna Kumar Behera. He entered public life through the Indian National Congress and built a long association with the politics of Kalahandi. Voters of the Koksara assembly constituency elected him to the Seventh Odisha Legislative Assembly in 1977 and again to the Ninth Assembly in 1985. In the 1980 Indian general election he won the Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat for the Seventh Lok Sabha, succeeding Pratap Keshari Deo.

In state government he held cabinet office under Congress chief ministers. In the ministry of Janaki Ballabh Patnaik he served as agriculture minister and later handled cooperation and tribal affairs between 1986 and 1989. Under Hemananda Biswal he was again minister for agriculture and cooperation. Colleagues and later tributes described him as a representative who stayed close to local people and pressed issues of regional development and social welfare from the floor and the cabinet table.

Writing ran alongside his political career. He published Odia novels including Bijayee, Adhikar, Anweshi, Sei Pahada Tale, Basundharara Koh and Raktatirtha, essay collections, and the autobiography Mulya Bodhara Sandhana. His travel book Ananya Srushti Canada brought him the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013. He also edited the monthly magazine Sagar. As an organiser he founded the Mahavir Sanskrutika Anusthan and served as president of the Kalahandi Lekhak Parishad, work that linked him to Kalahandi Baraputra Sanmana and Mahavir Sanmana honours reported after his death.

He was married to Rajeshwari Behera. After his death Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Congress leaders including Bhakta Charan Das, and other state figures offered public condolences, remembering his years as MP for Kalahandi and MLA for Koksara and his service to the region's development.