MP Assembly adjourned for day after paying tribute to ex-Union ministers Sartaj Singh, M S Gill

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly was adjourned for the day on Tuesday after the members paid tributes to political leaders, including former Union ministers Sartaj Singh and Dr M S Gill, who died recently.

Sartaj Singh was a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union health minister in 1996 when the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power for just 13 days.

Gill served as the chief election commissioner (CEC) between December 1996 and June 2001. He entered the Rajya Sabha as a Congress member and was made the Union sports minister in 2008.

Singh and Gill died in October this year.

As the House assembled for the day, the newly-elected members who had not yet taken oath as legislators, including Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat, Govind Singh, Usha Thakur and Atif Arif Aqueel, took oath.

On the first day of the session on Monday, as many as 207 members had taken oath.

So far, a total of 221 members have taken oath as members of the Legislative Assembly after being elected to the 16th Vidhan Sabha. Of them, 13 took oath in Sanskrit, two in Urdu, one in English (Kamleshwar Dodiyar of Bharat Adivasi Party) and all others in Hindi, an official said.

Former chief minister Kamal Nath is not attending this session and he will take oath later, the official said.

After the oath ceremony, Pro-tem Speaker Gopal Bhargava expressed grief over the death of the ex-Union ministers, including Gill, and recalled their contribution in social and political fields.

Paying his tribute to them, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav recalled that Sartaj Singh had served as a corporator, MLA, MP and a minister in the state as well as at the Centre.

He represented Hoshanagabad, now known as Narmadapuram Lok Sabha seat four times.

Yadav also paid tribute to Gill and recalled that during his tenure as the CEC, electronic voting machines (EVMs) were introduced, which he said ended the practice of rigging polls.

Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar also paid his tributes to the departed leaders.

Former Assembly speaker Dr Sitasharan Sharma credited Sartaj Singh for bringing him into political life.

In addition, the House paid tributes to former MLAs Ramdayal Ahirwar, Bhagwat Singh Patel, Kalyan Jain, Leelaram Bhojwani, Tarachand Patel and Ramlal Bharadwaj as well.

Later, the House observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed leaders following which the pro-tem speaker adjourned the proceedings for the day.