Seven-day national mourning Vajpayee, Funeral Today

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a towering politician mourned by millions, will be cremated this afternoon in Delhi with full state honours. His body, kept at his home in Delhi overnight, was taken by a flower-decked gun carriage to the headquarters of the BJP, the party he helped form in 1980.

Around 1 pm, his body will be taken in procession to the Rashtriya Smriti Samadhi, a site located between the memorials to other former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Many roads have been blocked in the capital and traffic restrictions have been put out ahead of what is anticipated to be a massive procession on a scale similar to the funeral of former PM Rajiv Gandhi 27 years ago.

The government has announced seven-day national mourning and schools and offices are shut in many states today.The country’s prime minister for 13 days in 1996, 13 months in 1998 and for five years from 1999, Mr Vajpayee had retreated from politics over the last few years because of his health.