Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves the Lodhi Crematorium with senior BJP leader L K Advani. (ANI)The remains of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were cremated with full state honours at Lodhi Road crematorium here on Wednesday in the presence of leaders from across the political spectrum and scores of supporters.
Swaraj died at AIIMS late Tuesday night after a massive heart attack. She was 67.
On Wednesday, vehicles sped up and down Jantar Mantar Road to her home as political leaders streamed in all morning to offer their condolences to the family.
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President Ram Nath Kovind was among the early visitors, going to the family’s residence for 10 minutes around 9 am.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu also went there. At 9.45 am, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived.
Among others who met the family at their home were Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP working president J P Nadda, Union ministers Kiren Rijju and Vijay Goel, and senior party leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti.
Among those from opposition parties who went there and paid condolences to the family were former Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
On Wednesday, vehicles sped up and down Jantar Mantar Road to her home as political leaders streamed in all morning to offer their condolences to the family.Sonia Gandhi, former Congress chief and one-time political rival from Bellary, Karnataka, from where Swaraj had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls in 1999, was also there, as were former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat.
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Around 12.30 pm, her remains began to be moved to the BJP headquarters at ITO, where party workers from across Delhi, Haryana and other parts of the country were waiting to pay their last respects.
Bansuri Swaraj and Swaraj Kaushal, daughter and husband of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, pay salute as state honours are accorded to her, at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo/ R. RAVEENDRAN)At 3.40 pm, the body, wrapped in Tricolour, reached Lodhi Road crematorium, where daughter Bansuri carried out the final rites. President Kovind, Prime Minister Modi, Union ministers Shah, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and BJP veteran L K Advani, among others, were present at the cremation.
Leaders associated with different stages of her long journey of over 40 years, starting from her days in Haryana politics in the 1970s, were part of this final journey.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays his last respects to former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj at her residence in New Delhi (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who visited the family’s home in the morning, recalled the late leader’s brush with politics in Karnataka in 1999: “She was, and will remain, a leader worthy of emulation. For me, it is a personal loss. I remember how she contested the Lok Sabha election from Bellary. I was with her in the same hotel, in the same room. Although she was defeated, she regularly visited Bellary for the annual Varamahalakshmi festival.”
BJP leader Anil Vij, the MLA from Ambala Cantonment in Haryana, said after the rituals: “She had begun her political journey from my Vidhan Sabha constituency. She won the seat twice. In 1990, when she was elected to Rajya Sabha, I contested the by-elections from the constituency (and won). She had a very close relationship with Ambala, and people there are deeply affected…”
On Wednesday, vehicles sped up and down Jantar Mantar Road to her home as political leaders streamed in all morning to offer their condolences to the family.BJP Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad Rita Bahuguna Joshi said: “After being in power (as minister in different governments) since the age of 25, today she died in a small flat in Delhi. It gives a signal to the entire world that a person is formed by her personality, not her position.”
In her condolence letter to Swaraj’s husband Swaraj Kaushal, Sonia Gandhi wrote: “In our many years together as colleagues in Lok Sabha, we developed a warm personal relationship and I feel her loss greatly. I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing away of your beloved wife…”
The mortal remains of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj being taken to Lodhi crematorium for her last rites (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)“The same courage and grit that was hallmark of Sushma-ji’s political life, she showed in her personal life as well, as she faced her serious ailments with incredible fortitude… You must draw solace from the fact that Sushmaji lived a life of honour, filled with achievement and contributions to the country she loved; respected and admired by all Indians. And she went as she had lived — active and engaged till the very end,” Sonia wrote.
