Paswan pays tributes to Vajpayee, takes part in immersion of

Rich tributes were today paid to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Bihar's Vaishali district where his ashes were immersed in the confluence of Ganges and Gandak rivers in presence of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and state BJP president Nityanand Rai.

A condolence meeting was also held at Konhara Ghat in Hajipur, the district headquarters and the Lok Sabha seat of Paswan where the LJP chief said he was "fortunate to have had the opportunity of serving as a minister during Vajpayee's tenure as PM".

He also described the BJP patriarch, who died on August 16 at the age of 93, as a man of "sweet words but firm action".

Rai said Vajpayee had provided the BJP with a "strong foundation which has facilitated the growth of an organization in its magnificent present form".

"He shall always reside in our hearts as an ideal and as a source of inspiration", Rai added.

Earlier, 10 batches of BJP leaders collected urns containing the deceased leader's ashes from the party state headquarters at Patna and fanned out to various corners of the state.

The occasion was marked by presence of senior leaders like Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Giriraj Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and state ministers Mangal Pandey and Nand Kishore Yadav.

Immersion of ashes, in various rivers across Bihar, will take place over the next couple of days, a party release said here.