New Delhi: The mortal remains of senior BJP leader and union minister Gopinath Munde, who was killed in a road accident in New Delhi Tuesday, were consigned to the flames in Parali-Vaijnath, his birthplace in Beed district, Wednesday afternoon.His teary-eyed eldest daughter and legislator Pankaja Munde-Palve performed the last rites and lit the funeral pyre as Munde had only three daughters and no son.Pankaja's action was symbolic and was expected to send positive signals in the Marathwada region which has been regularly in the news for incidents of female foeticide.A sea of humanity that included many union and state ministers, political leaders from all political parties, BJP activists and locals witnessed the state funeral ceremony accorded to Munde.The people raised slogans of ‘Gopinath Munde Amar Rahe', ‘Gopinath Munde Come Back' and ‘Gopinath Munde Zindabad' as the funeral ceremonies got underway.The Maharashtra government has declared a three-day period of state mourning in honour of the departed leader.Union minister Gopinath Munde's body reached here by a helicopter from Latur Wednesday morning.Hundreds of youth and party workers ran towards the chopper to catch a glimpse of their beloved leader who was born in a small hamlet here, grew and carved a niche for himself in national politics.The impatient, jostling and often crying men and women braved the scorching heat of the parched and backward Marathwada region which lost its third son of the soil in barely eight years -- first it was Pramod Mahajan, later Vilasrao Deshmukh and now Munde.Leaders, including union minister Prakash Javadekar and Munde's eldest daughter and legislator Pankaja Munde-Palve, fervently appealed on the microphone to the crowds to remain calm as people could be seen thumping their chests and heads.The government had decided to accord a state funeral to Munde and after the formalities were completed, Pankaja would light the funeral pyre of her father.The body of senior BJP leader and union minister Gopinath Munde was flown in to Latur from Mumbai Wednesday morning.Thousands of mourners, including senior party leaders, activists and commoners received the coffin at Latur airport.Earlier, the body was taken from the Mumbai residence of the Munde family, where security forces accorded a guard of honour, for the flight to Latur.From Latur, it was taken by a special helicopter to Beed, which is around 65 km away, for the last rites.The body was kept for public homage at the sprawling Vaijnath Sugar Factory campus till around 2 p.m. before the last rites. The state government has announced a three-day mourning for Munde.Top BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, other union ministers, Maharashtra political bigwigs, chief ministers of several states and party activists from all over the country were expected to attend the funeral.Late Tuesday evening, Munde's body was brought to Mumbai from Delhi and kept at his residence in Purna Building, Worli, where relatives, friends and close acquaintances besides VVIPs paid their last respects.Ironically, it is the same building where his brother-in-law and former BJP strongman Pramod Mahajan was gunned down by his brother Pravin eight years ago.Subsequently, Munde's body was kept at the BJP state headquarters at Nariman Point in south Mumbai where party workers from Mumbai and surrounding areas paid homage.Munde was scheduled to go to Beed Wednesday to address a series of victory rallies, his first visit to his home district after the BJP-led NDA swept to power last month.Munde was born Dec 12, 1949, in Parali-Vaijnath village where he had his schooling.Soon afterwards, he plunged into student politics along with BJP strongman and later his brother-in-law, late Pramod Mahajan, and was imprisoned during the Emergency of 1975-1977.Over the years, Munde was elected five times as legislator in Maharashtra, then Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, deputy chief minister of the state, and subsequently as the deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, and last week was made the union minister for rural development.
