Tripura Pradesh Congress on Sunday along with other parts of the country observed the 79th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with patriotic fervour and also organized different programmes to mark the day.

On Sunday morning hundreds of Congress workers and leaders including PCC chief Ashish Kumar Saha, senior leader and MLA Sudip Roy Barman paid floral tributes before a portrait of Rajiv Gandhi in front of Congress Bhavan along with other leaders. Later, they also paid homage at the memorial column in Gandhighat and organized a memorial rally at the streets of Agartala.

On this day, Sadbhavana Diwas is observed, a day dedicated to promoting national integration and peace among various communities in honour of Rajiv Gandhi's memory. A year after Rajiv Gandhi’s death, in 1992, Congress instituted the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award.

Speaking in the memorial meeting, Ashish Saha remembered the former PM as a patriot and a visionary whose far-sighted policies helped build modern India. Saha praised Gandhi for making major strides in communication and IT, strengthening democracy at the Panchayat level, ending decades of insurgency in Mizoram and Tripura.

Reports from other districts of the state said that different block Congress committees also observed the day with patriotic fervour and paid homage.

It may be recalled here Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister after the assassination of his mother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984.

He was assassinated in May 1991 by a suicide bomber while campaigning for the Congress in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur.