With moist eyes, Delhi bids adieu to Sheila Dikshit

The mortal remains of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit were consigned to flames Sunday afternoon as hundreds of mourners carrying Congress flags and placards thronged the streets, braving heavy rain and gusty winds, to bid an emotional farewell to their leader.

The 81-year-old Congress veteran, who died on Saturday due to cardiac arrest, was cremated with full state honours in a CNG-run crematorium at the Nigambodh Ghat. Top Congress leaders, including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were present at the funeral.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and Home Minister Satyendar Jain were among those who attended the last rites.

Before Dikhsit embarked on her final journey, her admirers and supporters flocked to her Nizamuddin East residence to catch one last glimpse of the former chief minster, credited with transforming Delhi into a modern, contemporary city.

BJP veteran L K Advani, senior party leader Sushma Swaraj and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah were among those who visited Dikshit's residence in the morning to pay their last respects.

People jostled with each other, trying to capture images on their mobile phones, as her glass casket, wrapped in the tricolour, was put in a white, flower-bedecked van.

The body was first taken to the AICC headquarters, where Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, chief ministers Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar among others paid their respects.

Thereafter, the casket was taken to the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee's office for the last time, the place that was central to Dikshit's politics since 1998.

Hundreds of drenched people tailed her van to the crematorium and stood hand-in-hand in puddles of rainwater till plumes of smoke billowed from the chimney at the CNG crematorium, which she had inaugurated in 2012.

Earlier, paying homage to Dikshit, Sonia Gandhi said, "I will always remember her. She was a friend... almost like an elder sister. This is a big loss to the Congress party."