Congress bids adieu to party stalwart

Top Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, paid their last respects to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.

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Draped in the national flag, the casket carrying Singh’s body was brought to the Congress headquarters from his 3, Motilal Nehru Marg residence in a flower-bedecked vehicle amid tight security. The procession reached the AICC office a little before 9 am.

Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur, their three daughters and relatives were also present here. They were received at the Congress headquarters by Kharge and Sonia Gandhi. Kaur laid a wreath, while Kharge and Sonia Gandhi placed the Congress flag with the iconic ‘charkha’ next to the casket.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and several ex-Union ministers were among those who paid tributes to the former PM. Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay were also there to pay homage to the late Congress leader. Singh’s mortal remains were kept at the Congress headquarters for an hour before his final journey to Nigambodh Ghat, where his last rites were conducted with full state honours.

Singh, who headed the Congress-led UPA government and is considered the architect of India’s economic reforms, died on Thursday at 92. He was Prime Minister for 10 years between 2004 and 2014.