TUMAKURU: His RSS connections brought Atal Behari Vajpayee to the remote village of the Pavagada taluk during the seventies. He would meet his contemporaries Nageshwara Rao and Ramarao, dedicated RSS workers, at Channakeshavapura.
In fact, both Nageshwara Rao and Vajpayee were put in the same jail at Nagpur during
the freedom struggle, a source said.
When he became the External Affairs Minister, Vajpayee had visited the Shanishwara temple in Pavagada town on October 28, 1978. Vajpayee had even dropped some change into the ‘hundi’ of the temple, sources said.
On Thursday, late Nageshwara Rao’s son Mukunda Channakeshavapura, also an RSS functionary, took part in the funeral of Vajpayee held at Smriti Sthal in New Delhi, they added.
Kolar residents pay last respect
Kolar: It was an undeclared bandh in Kolar and Chikballapur on Friday as majority of the people voluntarily downed their shutters to show their respect to the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In various places across Kolar and Chikballapur, BJP workers and leaders kept Vajpayee’s photo in the main circles decorated with flowers and paid their last respects. They even observed a silent procession. Various political party leaders also participated in the mourning.