Sushma's husband, daughter salute BJP stalwart before final journey

As the nation bid a tearful adieu to BJP stalwart and former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, her husband Swaraj Kaushal and daughter Bansuri Swaraj paid their obeisance by saluting her as full state honours were accorded to the veteran leader.

The teary-eyed father-daughter duo saluted her amidst a swarm of leaders cutting across party ranks and files. People from all walks of life thronged the BJP headquarters in the national capital to get a last glimpse of the stalwart.

The mortal remains of Swaraj, who passed away following a cardiac arrest on Tuesday night, was brought to the BJP headquarters in Rouse Avenue from her house in an ambulance with BJP workers chanting 'Jab tak sooraj chand rahega, Sushma tera naam rahega'.

The body was kept there for people to pay homage and later brought to Lodhi crematorium for last rites.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP working president JP Nadda were among the leaderrs who paid homage to Swaraj.

Swaraj, who passed away at AIIMS, was BJP's most prominent woman face.

According to sources at AIIMS, the 67-year-old was feeling restless at 9 pm and she was brought to the hospital at around 9:30 pm in an ambulance. She was declared dead at 10:50 pm.

Swaraj was the foreign minister in the first term of the Modi government in 2014. She opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections citing ill health.

( With inputs from ANI )