Thousands of tearful mourners pay last respect to YSR

Hyderabad The flag-draped and flower-bedecked coffin of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy left the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium on Friday afternoon, hours after it was placed there for the general public and leaders to pay their last respects.

The funeral convoy is headed to Hyderabad's Begumpet Airport from where the coffin carrying the body of the late chief minister will be flown to his native village Pulivendula in Kadapa district and laid to rest in full state honours at 5 pm.

Thousands of mourners on Friday swarmed the city to bid a tearful adieu to Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

The journey began from his house in Begumpet in Hyderabad after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and top Congress leaders paid homage and placed wreaths on his body.

Wrapped in tri-colour and kept in a bedecked open army truck, the body was taken first to Gandhi Bhavan - the state headquarters of Congress - in Nampally here to chants of 'YSR

amar rahe'.

Thereafter, the funeral cortege moved out of the premises and moved along a designated route towards the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, where the late chief minister's body will lie in state till about 1 pm to allow the general public and the political leadership to pay their last respects. It will then be flown to his native village for final rites.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister AK Antony and Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Salman Khursheed also arrived in Hyderabad on Friday morning.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and senior BJP leader L K Advani were among several governors and leaders from all political spectrums who paid their last respects to the late YSR.

The body of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was found deep inside the Nallamala forest on Thursday morning, almost 24 hours after his helicopter went missing. The body of YSR was found with the seat belt still around him. He was identified by his while dhoti and shirt.

Also dead in the crash were the CM’s Principal Secretary P Subramanium, Chief Security Officer A S C John Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy.

The death of 60-year-old YSR, who led the Congress to two successive election wins in the state and became one of its most powerful chief ministers, has left a huge hole in Andhra politics with the party struggling to find a successor. State Finance Minister K Rosaiah has been made acting Chief Minister.

YSR is survived by wife Vijayalakshmi, son and MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and daughter Sharmila.