A stream of eminent personalities from politics, film and the corporate world reached the historic Shivaji Park ground here to attend the last rites of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
NCP chief and Union Minister Sharad Pawar, BJP veteran L. K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, megastar Amitabh Bachchan and industrialists Anil Ambani, Venugopal Dhoot and Subhash Chandra reached Shivaji Park — which is a few metres from the Sena headquarters — hours ahead of the funeral.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP leaders Maneka Gandhi and Shahnawaz Hussain, senior Congress leader D. Y. Patil and Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse too were present at the funeral venue.
Three-tier security
Union Minister Praful Patel, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitely, VHP leader Pravin Togadia, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla and Maharashtra PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal were also present.
Bollywood actors Nana Patekar, Ritiesh Deshmukh and actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar were also present.
A three-tier security comprising the Mumbai police, the Rapid Action Force and party volunteers were deployed to make sure that the funeral procession moved without any untoward incident.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh even cancelled his daughter’s wedding reception Sunday night as he was busy with security detailing