Bangla PM, Sonia among leaders to pay homage to Basu tomorrow

Kolkata, Jan 18 (PTI) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Indian Finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader L K Advani will pay homage Tuesday to Jyoti Basu who
would be given a state funeral.
"Jyoti Basu will be given a state funeral tomorrow.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will led a 30-member
delegation to pay tribute to Basu at the assembly premises
where his body will be kept for over five hours," Assembly
Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim told reporters here.
Among other leaders to pay homage would be union
ministers Sharad Pawar and Jaipal Reddy, former Lok Sabha
speaker P A Sangma, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad, Chief Secretary
Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said.
Under a changed schedule, Basu's body will be taken
from the funeral parlour where it is being kept and taken to
CPI(M) headquarters at Alimuddin Street at around 8:30 am.
CPI-M politburo and Central and State Committee
members besides leaders of other political parties will pay
homage to the Marxist patriarch at the CPI-M headquarters,
party state secretary Biman Bose said.
From Alimuddin Street, his body will be taken to the
state secretariat, Writers Building, for a few minutes where
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Chief
Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty will place wreaths on the
body.
The body will then be taken to the assembly premises
where it will be kept for five hours from 10:00 am, Halim
said.
Basu's last journey will begin from the assembly
premises at 3:00 PM.
A guard of honour will be given to him at Moharkunj,
a park near SSKM Hospital, where his body has been donated,
Bose said. PTI SUN
RBT