Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon died on July 21, 2020, at the age of 85.
His son Ashutosh Tandon broke the news through his Twitter account.
Tandon was born in Chowk village in Lucknow, United Provinces, British India to Shivnarayan Tandon and Annpurna Devi.
He graduated from Kalicharan Degree College. Tandon married Krishna Tandon on 26 February 1958, with whom he had three sons.
Tandon died on 21 July-2020 at Medanta Hospital, Lucknow, after battling longtime illness. He was 85.
He had been a member of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) for two terms, 1978–84 and remained the Leader of House, of the Council, 1990–96.
Subsequently, he remained a member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for three terms, 1996–2009, and remained the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, 2003–07.
He had also served as Urban Development minister in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet under Mayawati (in the BSP-BJP combine), and also in the Kalyan Singh ministry earlier.
On his birthday in April 2004, he was distributing free saris to poor women when a stampede broke out, killing 21 people. He was later given a clean chit in this matter.
In May 2009, he was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Lucknow by a margin over 40,000 votes over Rita Bahuguna Joshi of Indian National Congress.
The seat was earlier held by former BJP President Atal Bihari Vajpayee since 1991 for four consecutive terms.
Despite an enormous electoral spending, Akhilesh Das of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) polled third, trailing by 70,000 votes.
As a Governor of Bihar, Tandon was praised for streamlining academic activities of the state universities. On 20 July 2019, Tandon was appointed as the 22nd Governor of Madhya Pradesh, replacing Anandiben Patel.
