ITANAGAR, Sept 7 - The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly today witnessed one of the longest obituary references as it paid tributes to former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul and a former legislator Tumpak Ete with members cutting across political affiliations taking part in the proceedings remembering the �People�s Chief Minister� and the former MLA from Aalo.
The two-day special assembly session, summoned by Governor JP Rajkhowa to ratify the GST Bill, started this morning on a sombre note with the House taking up the lone business of the day.
Pul, who rose from a modest beginning to become the State�s Chief Minister, had on August 9 last allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan inside the Chief Minister�s bungalow, which he was yet to vacate. He was 47 and is survived by three wives and seven children.
His untimely demise had shocked political circles across the country with his supporters protesting outside the CM�s official residence on that ill-fated day demanding an investigation by the CBI.
Though the State Government instituted a high-level inquiry by an IGP-rank officer into the incident, the probe panel was yet to accomplish the task, according to Chief Minister Pema Khandu.
Recalling his close association with late Pul during the political upheaval in the State from September last year and his relinquishing of a plum post in the Nabam Tuki ministry to support the former CM, Khandu said that the August 9 episode was the �most shocking� news in his life.
Describing the visionary leader�s death as �a huge loss� for the entire State, the Chief Minister, while citing the praiseworthy works done by late Pul for development of his constituency, made a fervent appeal to members of the House to �support� the family members of the departed leader in the forthcoming bye-election to Hayuliang constituency.
Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein said that in Pul�s death, he has lost a good friend. �It has created a great vacuum in the State�s political arena,� Mein said, adding that transition of Pul�s native district Anjaw had started in 1995 when he was elected as an MLA from Hayuliang for the first time.
Earlier, initiating the discussion, Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok said that the State has lost two eminent parliamentarians in the passing away of former CM Kalikho Pul and former MLA Tumpak Ete and prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls.
