He started his career as an IAS officer and was principal secretary to Biju Patnaik.

[1] 1 BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, resigned as the party's parliamentary group leader in Rajya Sabha on 4 August 2012.

[2] He attributed his resignation to absence of communication between him and BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

He founded OJM (Odisha Jana Morcha) as a rebel party and fought in the 2014 state elections without much success.

After spending 8 months at the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai in a critical condition, the "Chanakya of Odisha politics" died on 19 March 2017.