Madhya Pradesh governor Lalji Tandon passed away in Lucknow at 5.35am on Tuesday after being in hospital since June 11. He was 85.
According to the medical bulletin issued by the Lucknow hospital where he was undergoing treatment, ‘he was diagnosed to have chronic liver diseases’. The note further said, ‘because of his multiple ailments he was put on life support system’.
A three-day statewide period of mourning has been announced in UP—the state in whose politics Tandon was a permanent fixture since 1978 when he became a member of the state’s Vidhan Parishad. His political career, however, started with his election to Lucknow’s Municipal Corporation in 1962. His ideological roots went back to the age of 14 when he became a member of the RSS.
Between 1996 and 2009, he was a member of the state’s Vidhan Sabha and also held the portfolios of energy, urban development and parliamentary affairs in the government led by Kalyan Singh. Later, Tandon would play a key role in ousting Singh from the party.
He was appointed Governor of Madhya Pradesh in July 2019.
Tandon was a protégé of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and would manage his elections. In 2004, he had courted major controversy when a stampede broke out during his birthday celebrations which included sari distribution. It left 21 women dead but a subsequent inquiry absolved him of any responsibility. In 2009, he fought from Vajpyee’s Parliamentary seat and won, carried in large part by the emotional connect which Lucknow’s electorate shared with Vajpayee.
Tandon was also instrumental in striking up an unlikely alliance with the BSP in 1995, sealed with Mayawati trying a rakhi around his wrist—a tradition both politicians stuck to even after their parties went different ways.
Tandon’s mortal remains will remain open for the public to pay respect between 10 am to 12pm. His funeral will take place at 4pm.
His son Gopal Tandon, a minister in the present state government, has issued an appeal to Tandon’s followers in Lucknow to stay at home and remember the leader.