Boat capsizes during former PM Vajpayee’s ashes immersion in UP’s Basti

The incident created panic at the site but police personnel and others at the site jumped in to the water to pull out the leaders.

A boat with 17 people on board, including an MP, state minister and four MLAs, capsized in the Kuano river in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti during a ceremony to immerse the ashes of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

People pay floral tributes to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in front of urns containing his ashes at BJP office on Wednesday, in Jaipur on August 22. (HT File Photo)

The urn containing the ashes was bought to the Amhat Ghat and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders paid homage to it, observed two minutes silence and prayed for peace to the departed leader’s soul.

Former BJP state chief chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi then took the ashes on the flower bedecked boat and was followed by state minister Suresh Pasi, MP Harish Dwivedi, local MLAs and superintendent of police Dilip Kumar. As more people tried to follow, the boat’s balance was disturbed and it swayed, sending all of them into the water.

The incident created panic at the site but police personnel and others at the site jumped in to the water to pull out the leaders. The situation calmed down after a check revealed all had been safely rescued.

Following this, the ashes were immersed into the river from the ghat itself.

Read: BJP plans national push to cement Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s legacy