Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Assembly was adjourned on the second day of the budget session today after paying tributes to departed leaders including BJP veteran and former State Chief Minister Sundarlal Patwa. Paying tributes to Patwa, Speaker Sitasharan Sharma said the ex-CM passed away following a cardiac arrest on December 28 last year. Recalling his association with Patwa, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan termed him as an able administrator and said that he was one the pillars of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who took the party to masses.

“Patwa was an influential orator, an organiser, able administrator and one of the pillars of the BJP, who established the party in the state,” he said. Chouhan also that he had stopped the departed leader from contesting from Chhindwara against Kamal Nath, who was a popular leader there.

“I stopped Patwaji from contesting the Lok Sabha election from Chhindwara as Kamal Nath was a stalwart in this area. He however, refused to budge, and everybody knows the results,” Chouhan said. Notably, Patwa defeated Nath in his home turf comfortably when the latter contested a by-poll in 1997 after Alka Nath (Nath’s wife) resigned from the Chhindwara seat.

Former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, Leader of Opposition Bala Bachchan and some other leaders also paid tribute to Patwa and other leaders. The House also paid rich tributes to other former members of the Assembly who had passed away recently. They are: Tarun Chatterjee, Hukumchand Yadav, Jagdish Prasad Verma, Ramlal Yadav, Durgawati Patle and Babulal Arjun.

Besides, the House also paid homage to former Union ministers Surjeet Singh Barnala, Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, Rajya Sabha MP E Ahmed, former MPs Manaklal Agrawal and Mankuram Sodhi. Later, the House observed a two-minute silence in respect of the departed souls after which the Speaker adjourned the House for the day. The budget session of Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha began yesterday with the customary address of the State Governor.