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Thakre cremated with full state honours

By Our Staff Correspondent

The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, paying their last respects to the former BJP president, Kushabhau Thakre, in Bhopal on Monday. — Photo: A.M. Faruqui

BHOPAL DEC. 29. The mortal remains of the former Bharatiya Janata Party president, Kushabhau Thakre, were consigned to the flames with full state honours here today.

The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Madhya Pradesh Governor, Ramprakash Gupta, the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, the BJP national general secretaries, Pramod Mahajan and Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Jharkhand Chief Minister, Arjun Munda, the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhra Raje Scindia, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Raman Singh, the Union Ministers, Arun Jaitley, Satyanarayan Jatia, Vikram Verma and I.D. Swamy, besides the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K.S. Sudarshan, the leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Jamuna Devi, the State BJP president, Kailash Joshi, and members of the State Cabinet were all here today to bid farewell to the departed leader.

Amidst the chanting of vedic mantras by pundits, the pyre was lit by Kushabhau Thakre's nephew, Prashant Thakre, at the Bhadbhada Ghat which was filled with VVIPs and thousands of admirers and the front-ranking BJP leader's followers.

The Prime Minister reached the cremation ground along with the Chief Minister, Uma Bharti and the State BJP president. After laying the wreath on the mortal remains of Thakre, the Prime Minister was seen consoling his family members and relatives.

Since last evening mourners kept streaming into the State BJP headquarters where Kushabhau Thakre's body was kept after being brought here from Delhi.

The national flag flew at half-mast while all government offices and educational institutions remained closed today in Madhya Pradesh as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

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