Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was cremated with state honours on Friday.
The funeral procession commenced from the BJP headquarters, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Ministers walking with the pall-bearers to the cremation site at Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna. Large crowds thronged the party headquarters, where his body had been kept for public homage.
President Ram Nath Kovind led the state honours while the three Service Chiefs stood guard. A galaxy of political leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti were present at the cremation.
Vajpayee’s adopted daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the funeral pyre. Other family members, including her husband Ranjan Kishore Bhattacharya and daughter Niharika, were present for the private religious rituals.
The cremation formally marks the end of an era that saw the BJP’s political growth from a marginal, right-wing party to a centrist position marked by Vajpayee’s consensus-building approach.
Since 2004, after a series of electoral losses, the party has undergone a generational change, with Modi and BJP President Amit Shah signifying the beginning of a more hardline, phase.