Floral tributes were paid to him by some of his supporters at the memorial function which was marked by singing of bhajans.
Rao was a senior Congress leader and a Minister in the Cabinet of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and later rose to be the Prime Minister who completed his five-year term in office.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been attending Rao's memorial function in the past, did not do so today, as the government grapped with the protests on the gangrape incident.
Incidently, no prominent Congress leader attended the function in memory of Rao except for handful of his supporters.