Raj Sadosh/Sriganganagar/Abohar.
Four-time Sriganganagar-MLA and former minister Radheshyam (92) was given a state funeral, his son Virendra Rajpal lit the funeral pyre at the Kalyan Bhoomi near Padampur Road.
The district administration, on behalf of the state government, offered floral wreaths on the body that was covered by tricolor. The police contingent fired bullets in the air and gave an armed salute.
Radheshyam had served as chairman of Municipal Council and Improvement Trust in his early days of entering active politics. He was also the state president of Rajasthan Punjabi Mahasabha.
Radheshyam’s family reached India after losing many of his family members in Pakistan in August 1947. Fate took him finally from refugee camps to Sriganganagar. During his teenage period, he served as a porter at a railway station. Things changed when the family was allotted agricultural land in the Srivijayanagar area to compensate for the property left in Pakistan.
Radheshyam came into limelight in the year 1993 by defeating the then Chief Minister and BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in Sriganganagar constituency.
He had the distinction of participating in the wedding of Prince Charles, son of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Lady Diana on July 29, 1981 after he was elected MLA for the first time in 1980. The Indian delegation was led by the then President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy at the royal marriage.