Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's octogenarian father Anand Singh Bisht breathed his last on Monday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi after a protracted illness.
Bisht, 89, who had been suffering from kidney and liver ailments, had been admitted to AIIMS on April 13.
Adityanath, who could not visit his ailing father at AIIMS, said here that he would not be attending his funeral owing to his preoccupation with the fight against COVID-19 amid lockdown.
In a letter, the chief minister said that he was saddened at the demise of his father of his 'previous ashram' (Adityanath became an ascetic and renounced the world and joined a new ashram). ''He (Bisht) inculcated in me the sanskara (moral values) of honesty, hard work and dedication for public good...I wanted to see him for the last time but I am not able to do so owing to my duty toward the 23 crore people of the state....I will not be able to attend his funeral on Tuesday because of the lockdown and the fight against the coronavirus,'' he said.
Adityanath also appealed to his mother and other relatives to follow the lockdown guidelines and ensure that the minimum number of people were present at the funeral. He said that he would be meeting his mother after the lockdown period gets over.
According to the sources, the body of Adityanath's father would be taken to his ancestral village of Panchur in Pauri district of Uttarakhand. His cremation would take place on the bank of the Ganga river on Tuesday.