Leaders from all political parties paid their last respects to veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Narain Dutt Tiwari, whose mortal remains were brought here by an air ambulance on Saturday afternoon.
Tiwari, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in New Delhi, breathed his last at 2:50 pm on Thursday after a heart attack, hours after he turned 93.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues, including Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Brajesh Pathak, Surya Pratap Shahi and Swati Singh, former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reached Chaudhary Charan Singh airport in Amausi to receive the mortal remains of Tiwari. They paid floral tributes to the veteran leader soon after the body reached there.
Several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Samajwadi Party and were also there to pay tributes to the departed soul.
Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma along with ND Tiwari’s family comprising his widow Ujjawala Tiwari, son Shekhar and the latter’s wife accompanied the mortal remains from New Delhi on Saturday noon.
Dinesh Sharma in a tweet said, “Shri Tiwari had significantly worked for the development and prosperity of UP. He was soft-spoken, able administrator and also had knowledge of parliamentary traditions.”
After a brief condolence meeting at the airport, the body was taken to Vidhan Bhawan where Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit and leaders of different parties had gathered to pay their tributes to Tiwari.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who accompanied the body to the Vidhan Bhawan, remained there till the mortal remains were taken to Uttarakhand late Saturday afternoon. Minority Welfare minister Baldev Alakh accompanied the body to Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. The mortal remains will be consigned to flames at Haldwani in Uttarakhand on Sunday.
SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, senior Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari and Sanjay Singh, who were ministers in the ND Tiwari government in UP, also paid tributes to the departed leader.
ND Tiwari, who was considered close to Indira Gandhi, had served as a Union minister in several Congress-led governments. He had the unique distinction of having served as the Chief Minister of two states, UP (thrice) and Uttarakhand, and as Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
The UP government declared state mourning for two days from Saturday. All government offices will remain closed and there will be no government functions during this period. The national flag will fly at half mast.
