Sonia Gandhi pays tribute to Ghani Khan Choudhary

Kolkata, Apr 15: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today paid floral tributes to veteran Congress leader A.B.A.Ghani Khan Choudhury, who died here yesterday.

Clad in a white sari and accompanied by AICC general secretary in-charge of West Bengal Margaret Alva, Ms Gandhi arrived here by a special flight and from the airport drove straight to Pradesh Congress headquarters Bidhan Bhavan to pay homage to the departed Congress leader.

After paying the floral tributes, Ms Gandhi and several other senior Congress leaders, including Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the Pradesh Congress president, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and Mr Soumen Mitra, stood in silence for two minutes.

Later, she held a brief meeting with the Pradesh Congress leaders to know the arrangements of the last rites of Mr Ghani Khan, which is to be held in his home town Malda.

After spending only about five to seven minutes in Bidhan Bhavan, she again drove back to the airport on her way back to Delhi.

Earlier, on her arrival at the city airport at around 0745 hours she was received by Pradesh Congress president Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Pradip Bhattacharya among others.

Incidentally, the 79-year-old former Railway Minister died in a city nursing home yesterday after a protracted illness. His last rites are scheduled to be held in his home town Malda by this afternoon.

UNI

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