Sea of people flood BJP HQ for final glimpse

NEW DELHI: The former PM's body was kept overnight at his bungalow on Krishna Menon Road, where he spent the last few years away from public life. From there, it was taken with military honours to the BJP office. Ironically, the BJP patriarch could never visit the new, sprawling headquarters symbolic of the rise of the party he nurtured for decades.

Vajpayee, who ruled the country thrice in the 1990s, had retreated from politics over the last few years because of his health.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several ministers and top BJP leaders were present as Vajpayee's body, in a glass casket draped in the national flag, was carried into the building by soldiers.

The young and old, men and women, some with children, collected outside the gates of the BJP office, anxious for a last glimpse of the late leader. Some clambered on a neem tree outside, desperate to be part of the proceedings but unable to get inside.

Hundreds of people filed past the body in silence, with a large portrait of a smiling Vajpayee - a BJP flag on either side - in the backdrop.

Earlier on Thursday morning, hundreds of people chanted "Atal Bihari Amar Rahe" as Vajpayee's cortege made its way from his home through the city to reach the BJP office about five kilometres away.