Lakhs of people converged here since early Sunday as Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s final journey started from his residence Matoshri in suburban Bandra.
The Shiv Sainiks were pouring into Mumbai in their thousands from Maharashtra’s Thane, Raigad, Pune, Aurangabad and Konkan regions — the bastions of the right-wing party founded by Thackeray on June 19, 1966.
Police said around two lakh people were travelling with the procession and many others were joining it from connecting roads with the sea of humanity stretching for several kilometres.
People were also trying to catch a glimpse of the leader’s body from rooftops, hoardings, trees, water pipes and parapets.
As the procession reached a connecting road in Mahim, many Muslim women were seen silently weeping.
At the Mahim Church, many church-going people were waiting to join the final journey of the leader whose political career spanned five decades.
Wrapped in the tricolour, Thackeray’s body was brought out of his house a little after 9 a.m.
His son Uddhav broke down before the procession started. A glass box carrying the Sena patriarch’s body was then loaded onto a truck decked with flowers.
Uddhav, wife Rashmi and son Aditya were on the truck with Thackeray’s nephew and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj, wife Sharmila and their children.
Raj later disembarked and walked behind the truck with the funeral procession, keeping a low profile and eyes firmly on the ground.
Thackeray’s cortege will first go to Sena Bhavan, the party headquarters in Dadar, and the body would later be kept at Shivaji Park for people to pay their last respects.
However, the procession was moving extremely slowly with police trying to avoid a stampede.
Over 20,000 policemen, 15 companies of State Reserve Police Force and three contingents of Rapid Action Force had been deployed on the procession route, said a police officer.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh even cancelled his daughter’s wedding reception Sunday.
After allowing thousands of Shiv Sainiks to pay their respects to Thackeray, the body will be taken to Shivaji Park and kept for a public ‘darshan’.
All major roads and public places wore a deserted look, barring some security vehicles. Restaurants, shops and other establishments remained closed. Over a lakh autorickshaws and around 60,000 black and yellow taxis were also off the roads.
Thackeray’s mortal remains will be consigned to flames on a specially-erected public platform at the historic Shivaji Park, south-central Mumbai, Sunday evening, marking the first time a public cremation has occurred in Mumbai since independence.
Supercop and ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Rebeiro (also a former ambassador) said there had been no instance of a public cremation in Mumbai, at least since Independence.
“All big and small funerals have been performed only at the designated funeral sites. This is something new for Mumbai,” Rebeiro told IANS Sunday.
An official of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), who declined to be identified, said that special arrangements were made for the first-ever public cremation in the city at Shivaji Park in view of the massive crowds expected to attend.
A home department official said that in view of the huge crowds likely to turn up for the sad event, it was decided to permit a public cremation at Thackeray’s favourite spot, Shivaji Park, which he always referred to as ‘Shiv Tirth’ (Shiv pilgrim centre).
According to Mumbai police estimates, around 1.50 million people are expected to take part in the cremation Sunday. Starting with a funeral procession from Bandra east, there will be several thousands of viewers lining the streets to witness the procession; around half a million are expected to gather around Shivaji Park.
This will make Thackeray’s funeral one of the biggest public events in recent history; massive security arrangements are in place to ensure discipline.
Incidentally, last August, former union minister and ex-Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was accorded a similar public cremation in his tome town of Latur.