Public queues up outside Vajpayee's residence to pay homage

New Delhi: Hundreds of people queued up here outside the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee this morning to pay their last respects to the departed leader.

Heavy security arrangements, including deployment of police, traffic and paramilitary personnel, were in place around the 6-A Krishna Menon Marg bungalow in the Lutyens Delhi.

According to security officials present here, the gates of the residence would be thrown open at 7.30 am for the public to pay homage to Vajpayee.

The mortal remains would later be taken to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. The final journey to the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal would begin around 1 pm.

Vajpayee died at the AIIMS hospital here yesterday at the age of 93, following a prolonged illness. A 52-year-old man, Yogesh Kumar, arrived here with a group of people from Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.

The group covered a distance of around 500-km overnight in the hope to have one last glimpse of their beloved leader, Kumar said.

“I had met Vajpayee ji in 1984 when he had visited Uttarkashi en route to Gangotri. He visited the town once again in 1986,” Kumar claimed, as he displayed a picture of the Vajpayee with him.

“I have also brought along the Gangajal from Gangotri,” he said, hoping to find an opportunity to see him.

Another man, in his early 20s, said he had come all the way from Bihar to pay homage to the former prime minister. “I believe we have lost a great leader in him,” he said.