Saifai: Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi were among the leaders who arrived early at the Saifai Mela Ground pandal here to pay their last respects to Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
SP leader Dharmendra Yadav could not hold back his tears as he stood near the socialist leader’s coffin.
Naidu, also the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, termed Yadav’s demise a “loss for Uttar Pradesh”.
Joshi said Yadav never considered his political opponents as enemies and that he shared a personal bond with every leader.
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The other leaders who paid their tributes to ‘netaji’ were his son and incumbent SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Yadav’s brother and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) founder Shivpal Yadav, senior SP leaders Ramgopal Yadav, Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharmendra Yadav, Ram Gobind Chaudhary, Kiranmoy Nanda, and Om Prakash Singh.
Veteran SP leader Azam Khan also paid his last respects to the former chief minister.
Yadav, who had also served as the defence minister, passed away aged 82 at a private hospital in Gurugram on Monday.
His mortal remains were brought to Saifai that evening and kept at his ‘kothi’, where thousands descended to pay their last respects to their “netaji”, as he was fondly called.