Tuesday, December 20 2005 10:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and leaders across the political spectrum today (Dec 20, 2005) paid glorious tributes to Union Power Minister P M Sayeed, who died of a massive heart attack on Sunday.

Braving the early morning winter chill, a steady stream of mourners, including several of Sayeed's cabinet colleagues, reached his official residence here where his body was kept in state for enabling public to pay their last respects.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmushi were among those who paid homage to Sayeed.

After laying wreaths, Singh and Gandhi spent some time with the family members of the octogenarian parliamentarian, who had been ailing for some time and breathed his last at a hospital in Seoul, and were seen consoling them. A wreath was also laid on behalf of President A P J Abdul Kalam.

Delhi Lt Governor B L Joshi, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna and several MPs from both Houses of Parliament filed past the body amid chanting of verses from the Holy Quran.

Sayeed's body, draped in the national tricolour, was later flown to Kochi in an Air Force special aircraft enruote to his native village of Androth in Lakshwadeep where he will be laid to rest with full state honours.

Sayeed's body, which arrived here late last night from Seoul, was taken to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in a flower-bedecked army gun carriage escorted by personnel of the armed forces.

His wife Rahmath Sayeed, lone son Hamdulla Sayeed and seven daughters and other family members besides Minister Sis Ram Ola and Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Shakeel Ahmed and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Rehman Khan accompanied the body.

Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and Margarat Alva will represent the party at his burial.

Earlier, his party colleagues Ahmed Patel, M L Fotedar and Motilal Vohra and leaders from Kerala, including ministers Aryadan Mohammad and E T Mohammad Basheer and Janata Dal (S) leader M P Veerendra Kumar paid floral tributes to the departed leader.

Soft-spoken and affable, Sayeed was one of the senior most parliamentarians who set a record by winning a Lok Sabha seat ten times in a row and was a highly respected leader across the political spectrum. His end came in Hyundai Hospital in the South Korean capital where he had been undergoing treatment for enlargement of lever and symptoms of malignancy.

Sayeed was a minister in the short-lived Charan Singh government in 1979-80 and later Union Minister of State for Home and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting in the Narasimha Rao ministry.

In recognition of his experience as parliamentarian, he was made the Deputy Speaker of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 and remained in that post till dissolution of the House in 2004.