Friday, December 24 2004 13:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A galaxy of leaders cutting across party lines converged at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi today (Dec 24, 2004) to pay their last respects to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, who steered the nation through turbulent times in the early nineties.

Rao's body was kept for public veneration at the 24 Akbar Road headquarters of the party, which the former Prime Minister headed for more than five years.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were present at the AICC (All India Congress Committee) headquarters along with several senior party colleagues to receive the body when it was brought there this morning from his 9 Moti Lal Nehru Road residence just about 100 metres away.

The body of the late Prime Minister, wrapped in the tricolour, was brought to the Congress headquarters on a flower-bedecked gun carriage escorted by a cavalcade of over two-dozen army vehicles.

Earlier, as the cavalcade pulled out slowly on way to the party office, a large number of Congress workers paid their respect to the departed leader shouting slogans of "Narasimha Raoji amar rahen".

Rao's three sons were present alongside the body on the gun carriage as the late Prime Minster embarked on his final journey.

At the AICC headquarters, all of Rao's eight children including his five daughters, Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Natwar Singh, Arjun Singh and P Chidambaram and several senior Congress leaders were present.

Also paying homage to Rao were leaders from other political parties, including CPM's (Communist Party of India Marxist) Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury and LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

The body of Rao will lie in state at the AICC headquarters for the people to pay their last respects before it is flown later in the day in a special chartered plane to Hyderabad, where the last rites will be performed tomorrow.