Jharkhand echoed the grief and sentiments of the mourning nation when mortal remains of former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee were put to rest on Friday. Governor Droupadi Murmu, Chief Minister Raghubar Das and several others attended the funeral procession organised in Delhi.
The Chief Minister while paying his homage at the BJP headquarters in Delhi to the former PM wrote in his tweet, “I posses fatherly relationship and of guru-shishya with Atal ji. He may have gone far from us but his words still resonates in ears. We would always be indebted to Atal ji for constructing Jharkhand. His endless memories are left which are impossible to be summed up in pages. Again, great respect to the Yugpurush Atal ji.”
Besides him, leader of Opposition and JMM executive president Hemant Soren also attended the funeral. Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, lohardaga MP and union Minister Sudarshan Bhagat and several other MPs of the State paid their tributes to the great leader and statesman of Indian politics at party office in Delhi and attended the funeral at Smriti Sthal.
“Extremely sad that Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, our former Prime Minister and a true Indian statesman, is no more with us. His leadership, foresight, maturity and eloquence put him in a league of his own. Atalji, the ‘Gentle Giant’, will be missed by one and all,” said Giridih MP and BJP leader Ravindra Kumar Pandey.
MlA of Bagodar Nagendra Mahto said that, “I never expected the end will come so soon. He was a true Indian. He never hesitated to speak from his heart. He was the tallest leader in post-independent India. Vajpayee ji is the Ajatshatru of modern times because he always maintained dignity and decorum and our Jharkhand state has been created by him. I am shocked to know that our great leader is no more. It is an end of an era.”
JMM, Congress and JVM along with several political outfits back home organised condolences at their party offices to pay their last respect to the beloved leader who has been considered above any political boundary.