Mumbai:
The last rites of Union Minister Gopinath Munde, who died following a car accident in New Delhi Tuesday, will be performed on Wednesday afternoon with full state honours, at his village in Maharashtra.
According to a tentative programme, Mr Munde's body will be flown to Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon and kept at his residence in Worli for a short time to enable relatives and friends to pay their last respects.
Later, at about 6 pm, it will be taken to the state BJP headquarters at Nariman Point in south Mumbai for party workers to offer their tributes.
Early Wednesday morning, around 7 am, the body will be flown from Mumbai to Latur, which has an airport, and then taken by road to the adjacent Beed district, a distance of around 65 km.
It will be kept in Parali-Vaijnath village for a few hours to enable the locals to pay homage to the man who grew up amongst them, and then taken away for the last rites.
Several thousands of people, including VVIPs, top national and state leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and other parties are expected to attend the funeral, the details of which are being finalised.
Born Dec 12, 1949, in Parali-Vaijnath village where he had his early education, Mr Munde joined student politics along with the late Pramod Mahajan, BJP strongman and his brother-in-law, and like hundreds of Bharatiya Jana Sangh and RSS activists was jailed during the Emergency.
Over the years, Mr Munde was five times elected a legislator in Maharashtra, then became Leader of Opposition, deputy chief minister, subsequently deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, and finally union minister for rural development.