Congress President Sonia Gandhi
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has condoled the demise of former Manipur Chief Minister Rishang Keishing, who passed away at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal, on Tuesday evening. He was 97. The Congress President said that she is “deeply saddened by the demise of one of the senior most leaders with a sterling record of public service of nearly 70 years and who was member of India’s first Parliament.”
Gandhi offered her prayers and condolences to friends, family and people of Manipur at this loss and expressed hope that his “good work and endearing commitment to people will always find a place in the working of future generations.”
Keishing, the grand old man of Manipur, had served as an MLA for seven terms and also had become chief minister of the state four times. He was a member of the first Lok Sabha in 1952. When he retired from public life in 2014, he had just completed his term as member of the Rajya Sabha. He got elected to the first Lok Sabha in 1952 as a candidate of the Socialist Party.
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He became an active player– though on the government side – in Naga politics that had turned increasingly violent through as years passed. He went on to win the next two Lok Sabha elections from Manipur Outer constituency in 1957 and 1962 as a Socialist Party candidate, until in 1964, he joined the Congress party at the invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru.
While his first stint as CM lasted only 92 days, his longest innings was for six years and 258 days (1981 to 1988) during which he also steered the Congress party successfully through an assembly election.
