Gopinath Munde’s last journey in pics

Tens of thousands of mourning supporters and distraught family members on Wednesday bid a tearful farewell to Gopinath Munde, Maharashtra BJP's tallest mass leader and architect of its impressive victory in the Lok Sabha elections, who was killed in a car crash on Tuesday. A sea of humanity converged at his home town to pay last respects to the towering leader from the backward Marathwada region as her eldest daughter Pankaja lit the funeral pyre amid roars of "Gopinath Munde amar rahe" and "Munde Saheb parat ya (Munde Sir, come again)". Pankaja lighting her father's funeral pyre marked a departure from the Hindu tradition of a male member of the family doing duty and signalled her taking over the leader's political mantle. Munde, 64, Union Rural Development Minister, was yesterday killed in a road accident in Delhi while he was on way to Parli for a felicitation following his own and BJP's resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections, which saw him re-elected for a second time from Beed.