Vajpayee's portrait to be installed in central hall of Parliament

A life-size portrait of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is set to be installed in the central hall of Parliament, sources said Tuesday.

A parliamentary panel comprising leaders of various parties unanimously agreed to install a portrait of the BJP veteran. The proposal was mooted by Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Singh Tomar.

The committee on installation of portraits/statues of national leaders and parliamentarians in Parliament house complex, headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, which met here, unanimously agreed to the proposal, parliamentary sources said.

Portraits of 22 personalities, including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Indira Gandhi, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Vinayak Damodar (Veer) Savarkar, Rajiv Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, are installed in the central hall, where the President addresses joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajaya Sabha at the beginning of the first session of the year.

Floral tributes are paid to all those leaders whose portraits are installed in the Central hall on their birth and death anniversaries, by various leaders including the President, Prime Minister and leaders of opposition of both houses.

The meetings of constituent assembly to frame the Constitution were held in the historic hall.

Born on December 25, 1924, Vajpayee passed away on August 16.