New Delhi, March 4
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned till Thursday after Parliament paid homage to Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh yesterday.

President K.R. Narayanan led the nation in paying homage to the youngest-ever Lok Sabha Speaker after Balayogi’s body was brought to Parliament House from the airport.

Army personnel, acting as pallbearers, brought the flower-bedecked coffin on a military carriage to Parliament House as troops reversed arms and 21 guns boomed, according full state honours to the Dalit leader.

Apart from the President, the Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi and other past and present Parliamentarians paid homage to the Telugu Desam member.

Fifty-one-year-old Balayogi was a three-time Lok Sabha Member who was unanimously re-elected the Speaker in the present House in 1999.

Balayogi’s body was later flown back to Andhra Pradesh and the state funeral would take place on Wednesday at his home town of Yedurlanka.

A grief-stricken Parliament adjourned till March 7 after paying glowing tributes to the late Speaker.

In the Lok Sabha, Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed described Balayogi as a self-effacing and humble person who ensured equality of treatment to all parties while unflinchingly upholding the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Kant said Balayogi had endeared himself to one and all while showing firmness when required.

Members of both Houses observed silence for a short while as homage to the departed soul.

Mr Narayanan, Mr Kant, Mr Vajpayee and Mrs Gandhi and former Prime Ministers V.P. Singh, Chandrashekhar, P.V. Narasimha Rao and I.K. Gujral placed wreaths on the body which was draped in the Tricolour and kept at Parliament House.

The body of Balayogi was brought to the Capital around 7.20 a.m. and flown back by a special aircraft around noon. His body, after being kept at Parliament House for about two hours, was shifted to his residence for about an hour to enable the people to pay their homage.