Former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes were on Sunday immersed in Beas River in Manali close to his second home at Prini in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, 250 km from here.

Vajpayee ashes were brought from Shimla to Prini village in Manali where he used to reside during his summer sojourn.

Thakur along with cabinet ministers Anil Sharma, Govind Singh, MP Ram Swaroop Sharma, MLAs Col Inder Singh, Vinod Kumar, Inder Singh Gandhi, Surinder Shourie along with other BJP leaders and people from various walks of life including locals paid their last tributes to their beloved leader.

The ashes were later immersed in Beas river near Vashishtha, the place where (as locals believe) Sage Vashisht had tried to drown himself after he came to know about the killings of his son at the hands of Sage Vishwamitra.

Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister said Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a multi-faceted personality and apart from being the statesman, he was an excellent orator, a passionate poet and a committed journalist.

“Although he was away from active life for the last twelve year but still because of his noble works lakhs of people participated in his funeral pyre, this shows his popularity among the common masses,” he said, adding Vajpayee always showered special benevolence on Himachal and its people.

He said Vajpayee always considered Himachal his second home and has a house at Prini in Kullu district.

“He loved to visit the State whenever he got time from his busy schedule. It was the idea to construct Rohtang tunnel for connecting landlocked hinterland Lahaul valley with rest of the world way back in 1998 and Rohtang Tunnel was announced by him on 3 June 2000. The project was nearing completion and would be the biggest gift of Vajpayee to the state,” he said.

He also nostalgically remembered his last meeting with Vajpayee at Prini residence and said people would come from far flung areas just to listen to his speeches.

He said that his speeches used to be very fiery and phenomenal and whenever Vajpayee was addressing the public meetings, even his adversary would eagerly listen to his speech.

He urged the people to share memories and memoirs with Vajpayee so that the same can be used in a befitting manner to make these memories evergreen. He also planted a sapling of Deodar in memory of Vajpayee in the complex of the Institute and also tied Rakhi to the sapling.