A host of leaders led by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and including Congress President Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary in the Central Hall of Parliament.
A booklet containing the profile of Indira Gandhi, brought out in Hindi and English by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was also presented to the dignitaries who attended the function.
Among those who paid the floral tributes at the late leader's portrait were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.
A number of MPs, former MPs and the Secretaries-General of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Anoop Mishra and Shumsher K. Sheriff, respectively, also paid their tributes.
However, there were some interesting developments. The function was scheduled for 10.30 am. The Speaker and others were assembled there before time but Sonia Gandhi was running late, according to sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The Speaker waited for a few minutes and then decided to go ahead with the programme, they said.
After Mahajan, as also Azad and a number of other leaders, had finished paying the floral tributes, Sonia Gandhi walked in, expressing regrets for her delayed arrival, the sources said.
Thereafter, the ritual of paying floral tributes was again gone through, they said.
