Former MP CM Kailash Joshi cremated with state honours

The mortal remains of former MP chief minister and senior BJP leader Kailash Joshi was consigned to the flames on Monday with full state honours amid chanting of Hindu religious scriptures in Hatpipalya here.

Joshi died on Sunday at a hospital in Bhopal after prolonged illness at the age of 90.

His son Yogesh lit the funeral pyre, with hundreds of people in attendance at the cremation site, as well as along the roads between Bhopal and Dewas, over 150 kilometres apart, as the hearse passed.

Union Minister Narendra Tomar, BJP vice president and former MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, and MP minister Sajjan Singh Verma, who represented the Kamal Nath government, attended the funeral.

Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey paid floral tributes to the departed soul in Bhopal on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments had on Sunday declared state mourning as a mark of respect to Joshi, who was chief minister when the two states were undivided.