Kanpur (UP), Nov 30 (PTI) Thousands of people filled the streets of Kanpur on Sunday to bid a farewell to former Union minister and three-time Congress MP Sriprakash Jaiswal, who died at 81 a day ago following a cardiac arrest.
The political leader was cremated with full state honours at the Bhairon Ghat.
His body had been kept for public viewing until his son Sidharth Jaiswal, who lives in Canada, arrived on Sunday morning.
The funeral procession began around 11.50 am from Jaiswal’s residence in Pokharpur, Lal Bangla, where an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 people had gathered, Congress city unit president Pawan Gupta said.
The cortege moved towards his ancestral home on Canal Road where it reached at 12.25 pm where supporters chanted, “jab tak suraj chaand rahega, Sriprakash tumhara naam rahega” and “Sriprakash amar rahe.” The procession reached the Congress office at Tilak Bhawan at 12.50 pm, where party workers, leaders, and long-time associates paid Jaiswal floral tributes, Gupta said.
The final journey then proceeded to Bhairon Ghat, where Jaiswal was cremated at 2 pm. His sons, Sidharth Jaiswal and Gaurav Jaiswal, along with his three grandchildren, performed the last rites.
A long list of prominent leaders visited the family and offered condolences.
Among the early visitors were Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Kanpur MP Ramesh Awasthi, Akbarpur MP Devendra Singh ‘Bhola’, BJP MLA Surendra Maithani, and former UP minister Anant Mishra alias ‘Antu’.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya attended the cremation, and so did UP Minister Rakesh Sachan and BJP MLC Salil Vishnoi.
Widely respected across party lines, Jaiswal served as Minister of State for Home Affairs and later as Union Minister for Coal. For more than a decade, he remained one of Kanpur’s most influential and accessible political figures.
“His passing leaves a deep void in Kanpur’s public life, as supporters, colleagues, and citizens remember him as a leader whose presence shaped the political landscape of the city for generations,” Congress leader Har Prakash Agnihotri said. PTI COR NAV VN VN
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