Ex-Union min Sharad Yadav cremated in MP village

Bhopal: Veteran socialist leader and former Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav was cremated with full state honours on Saturday at his ancestral village in Madhya Pradesh’s Narmadapuram district. The mortal remains of the former Union minister were consigned to flames by his son Shantanu Bundela and daughter Subhasini in his ancestral village Ankhmau at around 5 pm amidst the slogans of “Sharad Yadav Zindabad.”

Yadav died on Thursday at a private hospital in Gurugram at the age of 75. A large number of people from the surrounding areas reached the village to pay tribute to the departed leader.

Earlier in the day, Yadav’s body reached Bhopal from Delhi in a chartered plane and was received by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, state BJP president VD Sharma, and others. The mortal remains were taken to Ankhmau, some 100 km away from Bhopal, by road. Digvijaya Singh accompanied the mortal remains to the village from Bhopal airport. Talking to reporters at the airport, chief minister Chouhan said Yadav used to be his neighbour as their villages are located on either side of the Narmada River.

“Yadav was the main pillar of the JP movement. He kept fighting against injustice since childhood and became involved in the national movement in his student life. He changed the direction of national politics,” Chouhan said. Union Minister Prahlad Patel told reporters Yadav has not only seen splendour of student politics but has also raised the prestige of Jabalpur in party politics. Yadav had won the Jabalpur Lok Sabha bypoll in 1974 by defeating his Congress rival. “There might be ideological differences between us but our personal relationship was never affected,” Patel said.

Besides Digvijaya Singh and Patel, Congress leader and former MP Rameshwar Neekhra, ex-Union Minister Suresh Pachouri, Narmadapuram MP Rao Uday Pratap Singh were present at Ankhmau.