BHOPAL: In 1984, Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia defeated BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Gwalior Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh.
More than three decades later, Scindia's son and former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who heads the opposition party's state election campaign committee in MP, cancelled on Thursday the three-day tour to his parliamentary constituency Guna.
He will fly to New Delhi in the night to offer tributes to the departed leader. According to state Congress sources, Scindia was addressing a public rally in Gairatganj area of Raisen district, when the news of Vajpayee's demise reached him.
He stopped his speech mid-day and offered tributes to the ex-PM, describing his demise as a personal loss to him. He subsequently announced cancelling the three-day tour to his parliamentary constituency Guna, starting from Friday.
Back in Bhopal, the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee cancelled the first meeting of its newly constituted State Election Committee due to Vajpayee's demise. The meeting was scheduled to start at 7 pm at the state Congress headquarters on Thursday.
Senior leaders, including national general in-charge for MP Deepak Babaria and MPCC chief Kamal Nath, condoled Vajpayee's death. Nath, the nine-time Lok Sabha member from Chhindwara, particularly remembered his long association with Vajpayee as a parliamentarian.
Nath recounted Vajpayee's particular concern about threats to the Taj Mahal from environmental hazards. The Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also announced stopping his ongoing statewide Jan Ashirwad Yatra over the sad demise of the ex-PM.
"I had to go to Chhindwara today, but I apologise to the people in that district for not being able to be there," said Chouhan before flying to New Delhi. Chouhan remembered his long association with Vajpayee and particularly reminisced being part of Vajpayee's election campaign for the 1991 Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha seat, which Chouhan won five times after it was vacated by Vajpayee in 1991 only.
"I was fortunate to be part of that memorable 1991 election campaign in Vidisha as the state president of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM). When I won the Vidisha seat after it was vacated by Atalji, he gave me the blessings addressing me as Vidishapati, it's the biggest appreciation and blessing in my life," said Chouhan in Bhopal.
The state government, meanwhile, declared seven days state mourning from August 16 to August 22 across the state. The government circular read that all state government offices and institutions will remain closed on Friday. In Indore, the trader associations decided to observe a total shutdown as a mark of respect to the departed soul on Friday.