LAST RITES: Sea of mourners bid adieu to Atal Bihari Vajpayee

New Delhi: The final journey of the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee began here on Friday from BJP Headquarters where the mortal remains were lying for people to pay homage.

Vajpayee, who passed away at AIIMS on Thursday evening, will be given a state funeral around 4 p.m. at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna.

His last journey from the party headquarters to Smriti Sthal was to begin at 1 p.m. but got delayed by around an hour as thousands of supporters and fans of Vajpayee swarmed the 6-A Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg to see their leader one last time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and other senior leaders including L.K. Advani and Sitaram Yechury paid their tributes to Vajpayee.

The body was brought from the Krishna Menon Marg residence of the former Prime Minister in a flower-decked hearse drawn by a military truck.