An emotional farewell to YSR Reddy
IDUPULAPAYA (CUDDAPA): Some were hysterical, some teary-eyed and some sombre. Thousands of people converged at the Idupulapaya Estate in Y S
An emotional farewell to YSR
Rajasekhara Reddy's hometown on Friday to bid the man who had touched them in one way or the other farewell. A sea of humanity surrounding the burial site prevented several ministers and other leaders from making it to the event.
The burial was both emotional and chaotic. Even before YSR's body and his family and other leaders landed at the venue at 4 pm, a crushing crowd of thousands gathered and poor bandobast and the lack of barricades led to utter chaos with people surging for a glimpse of the coffin.
Earlier in Hyderabad, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson & AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Union home minister P Chidambaram and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi placed wreaths on the body and spent nearly 25 minutes with the family members at the camp office on Friday.
The PM in his condolence message entered in the visitor's book wrote, "Our country has lost an outstanding leader and the people of Andhra Pradesh have lost an ideal chief minister who was passionately committed to the welfare of the poor.''
YSR's family, including his widow, son Jagan and daughter Sharmila arrived at the venue in an IAF chopper and YSR's body was brought in another chopper. Before the body was taken out of the chopper, the immediate family was allowed inside to have one last glimpse of the body.
But it was chaos from then on. Frenzied mobs surged towards the coffin as it was carried out by soldiers and placed in a truck. The family too had a tough time wading through the crowd to reach another truck. On occasions, the crowds threatened to topple the coffin from the hands of the pall bearers and the possibility of a stampede threatened the YSR family as they made their way to the truck.
Finally, the family and few others made it to a truck while the coffin was attached to a carrier behind it. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda made it to the venue in the nick of time and somehow were helped on to the truck carrying the YSR family.
Others present in the truck included chief minister K Rosaiah, Rajya Sabha MPs K V P Ramachamdra Rao and T Subbarami Reddy, PCC president D Srinivas, chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy, special secretary in the CMO MGVK Bhanu and CM's personal security officer Suryudu. There were many tense faces on the truck as it swayed through the crowd at a snail's pace with the coffin in tow.
To the chanting of prayers, YSR was finally laid to rest at a specially marked site in the family estate. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday.
Several cabinet colleagues of YSR, opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu, PRP president K Chiranjeevi, former speaker K R Suresh Reddy and deputy speaker N Manohar were among those VIPS travelling in four Volvos that could not make it to the funeral venue because of the traffic jam. They had to finally return to Renigunta without paying their homage to YSR.
In Hyderabad, several VIPs including senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, chief ministers of four states, eminent personalities from the film fraternity and others paid homage to Rajasekhara Reddy at the LB Stadium.
Advani was accompanied by party leaders Bandaru Dattatreya and M Venkaiah Naidu and had a brief chat with YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy. Others who placed wreaths were Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, CPM leaders Sitaram Yechury and B V Raghavalu.
The Union ministers who paid homage to YSR included Veerappa Moily, Vilas Rao Deshmukh, Praful Patel, Prithviraj Chavan, Vayalar Ravi, D Nepoleon, Sachin Pilot and Iqbal Singh. Among others who came to LB Stadium were T R Baalu, Narayan Rane, Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, Rashid Alvi, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, H D Kumara Swamy, Mohd Azharuddin, Dharam Singh and AICC treasurer Motilal Vora.
