Vajpayee's ashes to be immersed in all rivers of UP

Ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be immersed in all the holy rivers of Uttar Pradesh, including Ganga, Yamuna, and Tapti, to respect his grand stature, the state government announced on Friday.

Vajpayee, the 10th prime minister of India, breathed his last on Thursday evening. He was cremated on Friday with full state honour at Smriti Sthal in the national capital.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the state is Vajpayee's workplace and by immersing his ashes in all the rivers across the state, people will get a chance to be a part of his last rites.

Vajpayee, whose ancestral home is at Bateshwar in Agra died at the All India Institutes of Medical Science (AIIMS) following a prolonged illness. He was 93.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Amit Shah, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, among various other national leaders attended the cremation ceremony to pay homage to their beloved leader.

The cremation ceremony was also attended by a string of foreign dignitaries including King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Sri Lanka's acting Foreign Minister Lakshman Kiriella and former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.