Assam pays respect to Vajpayee, closes down

Assam pays homage to Atal Behari Vajpayee as almost all the shops and business establishment have kept their shutter down as a mark of respect to the departed leader.

Mr Vajpayee is the most regarded national leaders in Assam because f his close association with the Assam Agitation as he and Jaswant Sinha were the few leaders who supported the AASU leadership from the beginning.

Former Assam Chief Minister and AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was the first Assamese leader to go to the AIMS even before the formal announcement of his death was declared.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in fact paid flowing tribute to the leader through his personal twitter account.

In his tweet he wrote- Atal Ji's death is a great personal loss to me. I remember his words when I met him after I had lost my first election. He said, "Sarbananda, if you want to serve the people & society, you have to undergo challenges and sometimes even defeats in your life. But you must not feel disheartened or ever lose hope. You must concentrate only on serving the people and the country." I cannot explain how much strength and inspiration these words gave me. I will always cherish them, the Chief Minister said.

Mr Sonowal was close to Mr Vajpayee since his AASU days.