By IANS,
Hisar (Haryana) : Former Haryana chief minister and political stalwart Bhajan Lal, who died in this Haryana town Friday, will be cremated at Adampur town near here Saturday evening.
Bhajan Lal, who served as the chief minister of Haryana for three times and was a sitting MP from Hisar, died following a heart attack at the age of 80.
He was ailing for the last few months and suffered a heart attack Friday. He was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead after failing to resuscitate him.
Family sources said that Bhajan Lal’s body, which has been kept at his residence in Sector 15 here since Friday evening, will be taken to the grain market town of Adampur, 25 km from here, Saturday afternoon.
Bhajan Lal started his career as a trader in Adampur and later began his political innings from the town.
“He will be cremated as per the traditions of the Bishnoi community. He will be buried there,” a relative said.
Hundreds of people and leaders have been visiting his house since Friday evening to pay their last respect to the departed leader.
Bhajan Lal is survived by his wife Jasma Devi, two sons – former Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) president and former MP Kuldip Bishnoi – and a daughter, Roshni.
The Haryana government has announced a public holiday in the state Saturday. It also declared a three-day state mourning following Bhajan Lal’s death.
Bhajan Lal remained Haryana chief minister thrice (1979-82, 1982-86 and 1991-96). He was elected Lok Sabha member from Hisar in the 2009 elections on the ticket of his new party — the Haryana Janhit Congress.
Born Oct 6, 1930, in a village in Bahawalpur district (now in Pakistan), Bhajan Lal started as a petty trader but soon became one of the most famous political personalities in Haryana politics. He was particularly well-known for engineering defections of legislators to form governments in the state.
He was union minister for environment and forests (1986-88) and agriculture (1988-89) in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
He was first elected as a legislator in Haryana from the Adampur constituency in 1968 — two years after Haryana was formed in 1966.