In his lifetime, he kept his flock of friends, supporters and followers together but in his death, there are now multiple claimants to his legacy.
The 86th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister late Chandra Shekhar on Tuesday was marked by a series of functions in the state, each organised by his army of supporters.
The Samajwadi party, which has been trying to lay claim to the late leader’s political legacy, organised a function in Lucknow to pay tributes to Mr Chandra Shekhar. All senior SP ministers, led by Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav, paid glorious tributes to the late leader.
The former Prime Minister’s son Neeraj Shekhar, who is a SP MP from Ballia, organised another function in Delhi where UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav paid tributes to the late leader.
In Jahanaganj in Azamgarh, another Chandra Shekhar acolyte, Yeshwant Singh (also a SP MP) held another function under the aegis of the Chandra Shekhar Memorial Trust while the former Prime Minister’s grandson Ravi Shankar Pappu, now a BSP MLC, organised yet another function in Lucknow.
Besides, most Thakur legislators in the new Assembly are also keen to hitch on to the bandwagon and cash in on the late leader’s popularity and goodwill.
An interesting hoarding in Lucknow showcases this craze. Manoj Singh, an independent MLA from Chandauli, put up a hoarding to pay his respects to the late leader and the tag line in the hoarding says “Chandra Shekhar ke log.”
These multiple functions may or may not serve a political purpose but they have undoubtedly saddened some of the late Prime Minister’s closest friends.