All India Congress General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi while paying tributes to the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 104th birth anniversary today, said the name of Indira Gandhi figures in golden letters among the most honoured and talented Prime Ministers of India.
Sharing picture of his grandmother on social media, Rahul Gandhi said her biggest power was she always lived with people and shared their happiness and sorrows with them. “My grandmother, your courage always inspires me and even today I find you with me”, he tweeted.
In Himachal Pradesh, Congress leaders and workers also paid their tributes to Indira Gandhi on her 104th birth anniversary at the historic Ridge Maidan in Shimla.
Known as an “iron lady of Indian politics”, Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister who had awarded the statehood for Himachal Pradesh. She had come to Shimla for the maiden celebrations on January 25, 1971, when Dr YS Parmar was the Chief Minister, recalled the Congress workers.
It is coincidental that the birth anniversary of Mrs Indira Gandhi and the legendary Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi falls on the same day and the Gurpurab is also being celebrated on the same day in the country, said Vijaypal Singh, who heads the Congress intellectual cell in Himachal.
To mark the occasion, Himachal Congress launched the membership drive of the party led by Rajiv Shukla and Sanjay Dutt, both inchage of Himachal affairs.
Rajiv Shukla, PCC President Kuldip Rathaur Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, leader of opposition in Vidhan sabha Mukesh Agnihotri, Kaul Singh Thakur Harsh Mahajan, Asha Kumari, Ram Lal Thakur, former president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Sudhir Sharma , Harshvardhan Singh Chauhan, TS Bharmouri, Vikramaditya Singh, Dhani Ram Shandil, Rohit Thakur, Rajneesh Kimta Anirudh Singh, Sundar Thakur , Bawani Singh Pathania Vijay Pal Singh, Harish Janartha and other MLAs and workers paid their tributes to Indira Gandhi before her statue at the Ridge.
Congress is putting up an united face among the people ahead of the 2022 state assembly elections.
All the congress leaders had attended the lunch hosted by the Mandi MP Pratibha Singh, wife of late Virbhadra Singh, a six-time Chief Minister, and her son Vikramaditya Singh, Shimla rural MLA at their residence Holly Lodge on Thursday.
(Kuldeep Chauhan, editor and administrator, HimbuMail)