Thousands of people from Palghar, including tribals and fisherfolk, on Wednesday bid a tearful farewell to popular Lok Sabha member Chintaman N. Vanga who expired on Tuesday.
The body of Vanga, 67, who passed away in New Delhi, was brought here on Wednesday morning and kept near the family home in Talasari for people to pay their last respects.
Since dawn, snaky queues of people with folded hands, many seen weeping, lined up to pay homage to their leader, offering floral tributes or wreaths to the departed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
In the afternoon, his body was draped with the Tricolour and taken in a ceremonial procession in a carriage for the last rites.
Besides family members and friends, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra BJP President Raosaheb Patil-Danve, ministers, officials and others joined the large funeral procession in Talasari.
His son Shrinivas lit the funeral pyre as cries of "Chintaman Vanga Amar Rahen" rent the air.
As a mark of respect, Palghar district observed a spontaneous shutdown on Wednesday.
Vanga suffered a massive heart attack at his official residence in Delhi on Tuesday morning and was rushed to the RML Hospital where he died.
A lawyer by profession, he was elected thrice to the Lok Sabha from Palghar, including when it was earlier a part of Thane, around 90 km north of Mumbai.
Noted for his humility, public service and clean image, he did not have a single criminal case registered against him in his entire political career spanning over four decades.
Considered the "tribal face of BJP" in the hilly and forested tribal belts of Thane and Palghar, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996, then 1999 and again in 2014, when he was the MLA from Vikramgad since 2009.
He took up legal cases of poor people free, struggled for the rights of tribals in Thane-Palghar coastal belt and took up the issue of releasing fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails.
--IANS
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