Kalyan Singh cremated with state honours

Lucknow, Aug. 23: The last rites of senior BJP leader and former Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh were held on Monday at the banks of river Ganga in Narora.

His mortal remains were consigned to the flames at Bansi Ghat on Monday with full state honours, and the UP government declared that they will name the approach road to the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya as “Kalyan Marg”. The last rites were performed by the departed leader’s son, BJP MP Rajveer Singh. He was accompanied by his son Sandeep Singh, a minister in the Yogi Cabinet.

Aligarh/Lucknow, Aug. 23: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh was cremated with full state honours on Monday at Bansi Ghat in Bulandshahr’s Narora town, where senior BJP leaders and a large number of people congregated for the last rites.

Etah Lok Sabha MP Rajveer Singh lit his father’s pyre at the funeral attended by senior BJP leaders, including defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union women and child development minister Smriti Irani and Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. Rajveer Singh was assisted by his son Sandeep Singh, a minister in the UP government.

The two-time CM, who had also been the Rajasthan governor, died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday after prolonged illness.

A Hindutva icon and an OBC Lodh caste leader, Singh was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister when Kar Sevaks demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The others present at the cremation ground were UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP leader Uma Bharti, besides a number of state ministers, BJP workers and local people.

Singh was cremated with full state honours after his mortal remains were brought here from Ahilya Bai Holkar stadium in Aligarh, where they were kept for the people to pay their last respect.

From Aligarh, the late BJP leader’s body was first taken to Atrauli, near his native village Madholi, and was kept there for “darshan”, before being taken to Narora.