Sea of crowd in Saifai for Malayam Singh Yadav's last rites

A sea of people descended here on Tuesday for the last rites of veteran socialist leader Mulayam Singh Yadav at his native Saifai village in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh the cloudy sky and intermittent morning drizzle adding to the sombrenessThe Samajwadi Party founder and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister passed away aged 82 at a private hospital in Gurugram on MondayHis mortal remains were brought to Saifai Monday evening and kept at his kothi where people poured in to pay their last respects to Netaji as Yadav was fondly calledWith hundreds queued up for the final darshan amid the drizzle Yadavs body was moved around 10 am Tuesday from the house to a bigger hall on the Mela Ground premises around one km away to allow people to pay their last respectsAlso Read RIP Mulayam Singh Yadav Rare and unseen photos of the enigmatic Netaji of Uttar PradeshThe former chief ministers son Akhilesh Yadav brother Shivpal Yadav and other family members were onboard the truck decked up with garlands of flowers A huge crowd of people marched along as the vehicle moved slowly on the concrete road of the villageParty workers and people in their hundreds riding cycles motorcycles cars SUVs and other means of transport arrived at Saifai from areas nearby and places far off Tuesday morning for the final ritesThe entire Saifai looked like a sea of whites as people from all walks of life came out of their houses in their whites some on rooftops some climbing the tress along the route and some making an attempt to just touch the vehicle that carried their beloved leader their Dhartiputra son of the soilFrequent chants of netaji amar rahe amar rahe amar rahe long live netaji by lakhs of people rent the airAs the vehicle waded through the ocean of supporters wellwishers and common public Mulayams brother Shivpal Yadav stood on the vehicle in folded handsSamajwadi Party MLC Ashutosh Sinha who is in Saifai to attend the last rites told PTI I arrived here last night at around 1000 People from different walks of life have been coming to pay their last tributes to netaji and it continued in the morning as well Party workers from across the country have assembled to have the final glimpse of their beloved netaji and bid him a goodbye for the final timeManoj Mishra a native of Etawah reminisced how Netaji knew people of the region by their first names Yadav was hugely popular among the locals for his connect with the masses he told PTIAmong the crowd queued outside the kothi earlier in the morning was a group of six men who had come from Chunar village in Mirzapur in eastern UPWe left the village in an auto for Mirzapur railway station Boarded a train at 11 pm and reached Etawah around 7 am Babu Nandan Yadav told PTI after Yadavs darshanThe cremation is scheduled for the afternoon and preparations were underway for the last rites at Saifai amid heavy security presenceDefence Minister Rajnath Singh Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are likely to arrive here during the dayClad in a white dhotikurta and a Gandhi topi also white 80yearold Janak Singh came to Saifai from nearby Chaubeypur villageNeta ji Aone aadmi thhe Singh said showering praised on the leader and recalling his love for wrestling and the Holi festival He was very fond of Faag folk musical celebrations of Holi He hosted wonderful Holi gatheringsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever