MP House plans tribute to Sridevi, drops name later

Bhopal: Name of Bollywood diva Sridevi, who passed away in a Dubai hotel three days ago, was removed from the list of departed personalities scheduled to be paid homage in the Madhya Pradesh assembly on Tuesday, taking a section of members in the house by surprise.

Incidentally, the state Assembly secretariat did not assign any reason for dropping the two deceased actors from being paid homage by the House.

Ruling BJP sources, however, said the decision was taken following purported detection of alcohol in the actress’ blood in the post-mortem report.

The actress, along with late actor Shasi Kapoor, was among 11 departed souls who had earlier figured in the list of deceased personalities to be paid tribute in the house. However, the list was reportedly revised in the last minute by the MP Assembly secretariat to drop names of Sridevi and Shasi Kapoor.

“The state government wanted Sridevi’s name to be removed from the condolence list to steer clear of any controversy after the post-mortem report was made public,” sources said.

Interestingly, it was not clear yet as to why Shasi Kapoor’s name was also removed.

Opposition Congress cried foul over the decision to drop Sridevi from the list of departed souls to be condoled in the house.

“Sridevi was a Padma awardee. She was not listed among the departed personalities to be paid homage in the house because she always stood against communal politics”, Congress legislator Govind Singh said.

State revenue minister Uma Shankar Gupta however tried to parry the issue, saying, “The House runs by its own protocol and rules of procedures. It is Speaker’s privilege to decide what matter should be taken in the House”.