Beed: Union Minister Gopinath Munde who died in a road accident was cremated at his native village Parli, Maharashtra on Wednesday amidst chanting by hundreds of his supporters.
The mortal remains of Munde were consigned to flames by his eldest daughter and BJP MLA Pankaja.
A sea of humanity converged at his home town to pay last respects to the towering leader from the backward Marathwada region as her eldest daughter Pankaja lit the funeral pyre amid roars of "Gopinath Munde amar rahe" and "Munde Saheb parat ya (Munde Sir, come again)".
Munde, 64, Union Rural Development Minister, was yesterday killed in a road accident in Delhi while he was on way to Parli for a felicitation following his own and BJP's resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections, which saw him re-elected for a second time from Beed.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, he could not reach there alive and only his mortal remains were brought to the Baidyanath Sugar Factory compound for performing the last rites, a few kilometres away from 'Totla Maidan', the venue of the felicitation that never happened.
The BJP veteran is survived by his wife Pradnya and three daughters including Pankaja, BJP MLA from Parli and heir to his political legacy.
Munde's body was flown in from Mumbai airport in the morning and was brought to Parli village via helicopter. His body was kept atop a stage for his supporters to pay their last respects.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)
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