The mortal remains of former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was on Sunday in Jaipur consigned to flames with full state honours.
Shekhawat's grandsons-- Vikramaditya Singh and Abhimanuy Singh-- lit the funeral pyre in the presence of vice-president Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Rajasthan acting governor Shivraj Patil, BJP's stalwarts L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at Vidhyadhar nagar ground.
Police bands played mourning tunes while jawans reversed their guns and bowed heads. They also fired in the air in respect of the leader, who died due to cardiac arrest here yesterday.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam and Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar visited Shekhawat's home to pay their respect. Veteran BJP leader L K Advani,leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Union ministers C P Joshi, N N Meena, Mahadev Singh Khandela and National Commission for Women Chairperson Girja Vyas also visited Shekhawat's house to pay their respect.
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, BJP chief ministers Narendra Modi, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank along with saffron party leaders Kalraj Mishra and Najma Heptullah participated in the funeral. Kept in a bedecked military truck, body of 87-year-old Shekhawat was taken in a procession to the cremation ground, 15 km from his house.
Despite being Sunday when markets were closed, people in large numbers lined up along the route to have last glimpse of their leader.
As a mark of respect to Shekhawat, who served as CM of Rajasthan thrice, the state Congress government announced to build a memorial in his name. Jaipur Development Authority has allocated 5600 square metre of land (about 2.50 bigha) in Vidhaydhar Nagar area for constructing "Shekhawat smarak", an official said. PTI
