Bengal House bids adieu to Gyan Singh

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service                                                                                    

Kolkata, August 9

Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first premier of West Bengal in Independent India, was fond of Gyan Singh Sohanpal and had once advised him to go to Punjab and work on developing a constituency that would stand by him through thick and thin.

“But Gyan Singh was adamant. He said he would never leave Kharagpur, his birth place. And the constituency stood by him, sending him to the state Assembly a record 10 times,” recalled Bachan Singh Saral (70), a part-time journalist and general secretary of the Kamagata Maru Memorial Trust.

The body of Gyan Singh, who died at SSKM Hospital here yesterday, was brought to the Assembly today where MLAs and other dignitaries paid floral tributes to the veteran Congress politician. The Assembly, which was in session, was adjourned after the question hour as a mark of respect. Speaker Biman Banerjee said: “He was like a leader to all of us here.”

“Gyan Singh was a pro-tem speaker when I took oath as an MLA the first time. I consider myself lucky,” said Rajib Banerjee, state irrigation minister, after placing a wreath.

Bachan Singh, who accompanied the body, said Gyan Singh’s family originally hailed from Ludhiana. His father, a railway employee, later settled down in Kharagpur, where Gyan Singh was born. “Gyan Singh won the Kharagpur Town Assembly seat seven times in a row from 1982 to 2011. He also won in 1969, 1971 and 1972,” said Saral.