President Ram Nath Kovind, PM Modi grieves for Somnath Chatterjee

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday led the nation in paying glowing tributes to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee one of the countrys most respected parliamentarians who died here in the morningCalling him a veteran parliamentarian who had a forceful presence in the House the President tweeted A loss for public life in Bengal and India My condolences to his family and innumerable wellwishersModi described Chatterjee a 10time MP as a stalwart of Indian politics who made parliamentary democracy richerHe said that Chatterjee was a strong voice for the wellbeing of the poor and vulnerable Anguished by his demiseCongress President Rahul Gandhi hailed him as an institutionHe was an institution Greatly respected and admired by all parliamentarians across party lines My condolences to his family at this time of grief he tweetedWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who came to prominence incidentally with her triumph over Chatterjee in the Lok Sabha polls from Jadavpur consituency in 1984 termed it a great lossSaddened at the passing away of Somnath Da My condolences to his family and admirers This is a great loss for us the Trinamool Congress chief tweetedDelhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said he was extremely sad over his death and remembered him as one of the greatest parliamentarians of contemporary times He will always be missedOdisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said A stalwart parliamentarian popular amongst people and one of greatest Speakers of Lok Sabha A huge loss to the Indian democracyTelangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also paid homage to ChatterjeeIn Kolkata Communist Party of IndiaMarxist CPIM leader Biman Bose said Chatterjee always used to talk in favour of the masses He was a distinguished big hearted and highly respectable parliamentarianSomnath Das demise is a colossal loss to parliamentary politics We were in touch with him despite not being a party member So his demise is also a loss to revolution of the poor Bose told the mediaCPIM state Secretary Surya Kanta Mishra added He used to raise voice whenever democracy and secularism were attacked He attended meetings and programmes to support for democracy even after his retirement from active politicsTrinamool Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy pointed out that it was under Chatterjees watch that the Zero Hour was telecast live from July 5 2004 A 24hour Lok Sabha television channel also came into being in 2006In Indian politics he is a colossus We all know that between 2004 to 2009 Somnath Chatterjee had done exceedingly well as Speaker of the Lok Sabha Roy saidCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever