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Speaker Balayogi's body will be taken to Delhi

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

The body of Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday, will be flown to New Delhi on Monday to enable MPs to pay their last respects.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu decided to take the Speaker's body to New Delhi for a day, following requests from the Union Cabinet, particularly from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and MPs cutting across party lines.

The cremation will take place in Balayogi's hometown, Yedurulanka, in East Godavari district in his home state Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. Prime Minister Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi will attend the funeral.

The chief minister, who returned with the Speaker's body from Eluru at 1630, told newsmen, "It is the first time in the history of the country that a Speaker has died in office. Parliament is in session and all the MPs want to pay their respects to him."

Balayogi's supporters from his Lok Sabha constituency, Amalapuram, had wanted the body to be taken to his hometown at the earliest. "People there are waiting impatiently for the body," K Yerran Naidu, leader of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party, quoting local party leaders, told newsmen.

Union Rural Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy felt the Speaker's body should be taken to Delhi and kept in state at Parliament House.

The body will be flown to Delhi by a special aircraft early on Monday. The same night, it will be flown to Rajahmundry by special aircraft and taken to his constituency by road. On Tuesday, it will lie in state for mourners to pay their respects. Balayogi will be cremated on Wednesday.

The body would be kept at the Parliament House from 0730 hours to 0930 hours on Monday to enable MPs and other political leaders to pay respects.

Hundreds of activists received the coffin containing the embalmed body at the Speaker's home in Hyderabad's Banjara Hills area on Sunday evening. His widow Vijayakumari, their three daughters and only son were inconsolable. The body was later shifted to the Telugu Desam Party headquarters where TDP leaders and party workers paid their tributes. Balayogi was a member of the TDP.

The Deccan Aviation helicopter carrying the Speaker, his bodyguard and an assistant developed a snag minutes after it took off from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district at 7:45 am. It hit a coconut tree before hurtling into a pond near Kuvvadalanka village in Krishna district, official sources said. His additional private secretary K S Raju and the pilot also died in the accident. Balayogi suffered severe head injuries, the sources added.

The Speaker was to have taken a train from Nidadavolu for Secunderabad on Saturday night, but fate willed otherwise.

Related Reports:
G M C Balayogi: The first dalit Lok Sabha Speaker
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