BELAGAVI, 27 DEC

The State Congress unit on Friday paid tributes to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday, at the site in Belagavi where they planned a mega convention for the centenary celebrations of the 1924 Indian National Congress session presided by Mahatma Gandhi.

Several Congress leaders, including its President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, attended Thursday’s extended Congress Working Committee meeting planned as part of the centenary celebrations.

Following Singh's demise the State Congress cancelled the mega convention named Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan that was scheduled to commence on Thursday. Kharge, Gandhi and several AICC leaders rushed back to Delhi.

Other Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister and State Congress chief DK Shivakumar, state ministers and legislators paid floral tributes to Singh's portrait at the venue planned for the mega convention.

Siddaramaiah said Manmohan Singh was a great economist and very humble human being. "He was soft natured, soft and less spoken. I had the opportunity to meet him several times as the Leader of Opposition and Chief Minister of Karnataka. He treated and spoke to everyone respectfully and heard everyone patiently and used to say directly whether something told or requested of him will either happen or not," the CM said.

Singh was an honest prime minister, the CM said, adding that he had occupied various positions in his career and did justice to all of them, besides trying to find solutions to many problems faced by the country.

Recalling Singh’s tenure as finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government and as the prime minister for 10 years, Siddaramaiah said, "He tried to lift the people of the country socially and economically. He was a cultured, gentlemanly politician. His death is a loss to the entire world." —PTI