Former Manipur minister Soso Lorho passes away

Our Correspondent Imphal, April 20 (EMN): A Naga leader and former minister of Manipur Soso Lorho passed away after a prolonged illness on April 19 at a private hospital in Imphal. He died at the age of 79. A condolence service was organised at his Chingmeirong Poumai colony residence, Sangakpham in Imphal on April 20. Ministers, legislators, and former legislators, leaders of political parties, and civil society organisations, among others attended the condolence service. The speakers of the service included former legislators AS Arthur, RK Thekho, and Francis Ngajokpa who spoke about their personal experiences with the former minister. The mortal remains of the former minister was taken to  Senapati district headquarters for a funeral service before a send-off to his native village, Tunggam, in Paomata sub-division in the district, for the last rites scheduled to be conducted on Saturday. Son of D Sousou, Soso Lorho was the general secretary of Paomata Naga Students Union during 1962-64 and general secretary of the Paomata Naga Progressive Union during 1967-75. He contested from Manipur outer parliamentary constituency as the first Congress (I) candidate in 1978. He was elected for the Manipur Legislative Assembly in 1980 from the Mao constituency on Congress (I) ticket and became the Medical, Power, Cooperation and Statistics minister. Soso Lorho was re-elected in 1985 on the Congress ticket and became the Agriculture, Works and Tribal Development minister. He was also re-elected in 1990 and become a minister of state. He was the president of the Manipur Pradesh Indira Congress Committee (T) in 1996 and president of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) of Manipur during 2012-14 and contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 on the NPF ticket. He was also a convenor of the Manipur Naga political leaders forum.