Several leaders and many dignitaries including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD(U) president Sarad Yadav, Odisha Governor S.C. Jamir, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi today paid floral tributes to socialist leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray at Lohia Academy in Bhubaneswar. <br/><br/>Terming him a true Gandhian and a great socialist leader, Bihar chief minister said Ray used to show us path and had a remarkable tenure as the Lok Sabha Speaker. His death is a great loss to Indian politics, said Nitish Kumar. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who paid floral tributes to the departed soul, said it was an end of an era in Indian politics. Ray was accorded a state funeral at his village Bhanagarh in the Puri district this afternoon. Odisha government has declared one-day state mourning today in honour of the eminent socialist leader.<br/><br/>Born on November 26, 1926, Ray joined national politics, inspired by the leadership of socialist leader Rammanohar Lohia. Ray was elected to the fourth Lok Sabha from the Puri constituency in Odisha in 1967. Prime Minister Morarji Desai inducted Ray into his cabinet as Minister for Health and Family Welfare in January 1979 and Ray continued in that post till January 1980. In 1989, he was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency in Odisha as a Janata Dal candidate. On December 19, 1989, he was unanimously elected the Speaker of the 9th Lok Sabha. In 1991, he was re-elected to the 10th Lok Sabha from the same constituency.