Last rites of Sharad Yadav to take place in his ancestral village in MP

The last rites of veteran socialist leader and former Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav will take place at his ancestral village in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram district on Saturday, his close associate said.

Yadav, a former Union minister, died on Thursday at a private hospital in Gurugram. He was 75.

Former JD (U) Madhya Pradesh unit head and a close associate of Yadav, Govind Yadav, said the veteran leader's last rites will be performed at his ancestral village Ankhmau in Babai tehsil of Narmadapuram (earlier Hoshangabad) district on Saturday.

The mortal remains of Yadav will be brought from Delhi to Madhya Pradesh by plane, he told PTI.

After starting out as a student leader, Sharad Yadav's Lok Sabha byelection victory from Jabalpur in MP in 1974 as opposition candidate against the Congress catapulted him into national politics, he reminisced.

In his long political career, Sharad Yadav won Lok Sabha election seven times and was Rajya Sabha MP four times, he said.

Besides Jabalpur, he also won Lok Sabha polls from Badayun in Uttar Pradesh and Madhepura in Bihar, which was a rare achievement for any politician, Govind Yadav added.