Vajpayee's ashes to be immersed in 10 rivers of MP

Bhopal: A portion of ashes of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be immersed in 10 main rivers of Madhya Pradesh after taking out processions with urns containing the ashes in his home state.

Ten “Kalash Yatras”, processions on vehicles with urns containing Vajpayee’s ashes, will be taken out in different parts of the state before the ashes are immersed in rivers across Madhya Pradesh, the BJP said today.

Nine of the yatras would commence from the BJP state headquarters in Bhopal, while the tenth one would begin from Gwalior, Vajpayee’s birthplace, said state BJP media cell in- charge Lokendra Parashar. The ashes from one of the 10 urns would be immersed in the Narmada, MP’s most sacred river, tomorrow, while the rest would be immersed on Thursday, he said.

“The urns would reach Bhopal on Wednesday and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president Rakesh Singh would leave for Hoshangabad from party headquarters with one of the urns for immersion of the ashes in the Narmada in the afternoon,” he said. Both the leaders along with other party leaders and workers would immerse the ashes in the Narmada river on Wednesday evening, he said.

On Thursday, the processions for immersion of the ashes in eight rivers would start from the state BJP headquarters – Deendayal Parisar – in Bhopal. Another yatra would start from Gwalior for the immersion of ashes in the Chambal river, Parashar said.

After the end of processions, the ashes would be immersed in the Parvati river at Chanchoda (Guna district), the Kshipra river in Ujjain, the Tapti in Burhanpur, the Son in Rewa, the Betwa in Orchha, the Pench in Chhindwara, the Sindh in Datia and the Ken river in Panna, he added.

The BJP plans to immerse Vajpayee’s ashes in 100 rivers across the country. The 93-year-old BJP stalwart died on August 16 in New Delhi after a prolonged illness and he was cremated the next day in the national capital.