Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat pays tribute to former Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand chief minister ND Tiwari on Sunday. (PTI)

The last rites of veteran politician N D Tiwari, who had served as the chief minister of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, were held with full state honours at Ranibagh in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district on Sunday. Tiwari, who was born in Uttarakhand’s Baluti village, which was then part of Uttar Pradesh, died on October 18, on his 93rd birthday, at a private hospital in New Delhi after a prolonged illness.

Tiwari’s body was brought to Uttarakhand on Saturday night and was kept at the circuit house in Nainital district’s Kathgodam town. On Sunday morning, locals, relatives, Congress and BJP leaders reached the circuit house to pay their last respects to Tiwari. In the afternoon, the body was taken for cremation to Chitrashila Ghat in Nainital district’s Ranibagh area.

Senior Congress leaders, including former chief minister Harish Rawat, Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Pritam Singh, former state PCC president Kishore Upadhyaya, and leader of Opposition in the state assembly Indira Hridayesh were present at the cremation ceremony.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat and other senior BJP leaders, including MPs Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and party state president Ajay Bhatt were also present during the cremation. Tiwari had served as the Uttarakhand chief minister between 2002 and 2007.

Calling him a “vikas purush (man of development)”, Chief Minister Rawat said that Tiwari had played a big role in setting Uttarakhand on the path of development and that his contribution to the state would always be remembered.