Pankaja lighting her father's funeral pyre marked a departure from the Hindu tradition of a male member of the family doing duty and signalled her taking over the leader's political mantle.
Several senior BJP leaders including Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, a close associate of Munde since his days as a student leader in Pune, party general secretary Rajeev Pratap Rudy, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray, MNS boss Raj Thackeray, RPI's Ramdas Athavale and several state ministers and legislators were in attendance.
Munde, a backward class leader, who started his political career as a student leader and rose to become the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 1995, when BJP-Shiv Sena came to power in the state for the first time, was to lead his party's assembly campaign.
He was also seen by many as a formidable contender for the Chief Minister's post in the event of the alliance forming its government after the assembly elections four months from now.
But fate willed otherwise and Munde died in a crash a week after being sworn in as Union minister but before he could take oath as MP.
