MP Assembly pays tributes to Swaraj, Jaitley and Seshan

The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Tuesday paid tributes to senior politicians, including Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, and former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan who all died in recent past.

The deceased leaders included former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Babulal Gaur and Kailash Joshi, former Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ram Jethmalani and S Jaipal Reddy among others.

In his speech, Chief Minister Kamal Nath recalled his association with late Gaur and other leaders.

Nath recalled how Gaur had talked only about Madhya Pradesh when he was visiting Tokyo as the representative of India as a part of an international delegation.

He also hailed Swaraj, who as the external affairs minister during 2014-19, had appointed a separate officer in her ministry to deal with the complaints received from elected representatives.

Nath said he knew Jaitley, who had served as Union finance minister during 2014-19, since his student days.

Former chief minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Gaur and Joshi had influenced politics of Madhya Pradesh for at least 50 years.

"Jaitley was an eminent orator who was known for articulating views of the Centre. Sushmaji used to reach out to the common people and addressed their problems through tweets," Chouhan said even as he termed Kailash Joshi as a "saint in politics".

Both Nath and Chouhan also recalled contributions made by former CEC T N Seshan for making the poll body effective and assertive.

Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava also paid tributes to the departed leaders.

Earlier, Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati mentioned about the departed leaders.

Later, the House observed a two-minute silence, after which the speaker adjourned the proceedings for the day.