Gopinath Munde to be cremated today

"The Government has decided that a State funeral will be accorded to late Shri Gopinath Munde, who passed away today in New Delhi. The funeral will take place at his home town at Village Nathra, Tehsil Parali in the Beed District tomorrow in the afternoon," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.

"The Government has also decided that State mourning will be observed on June 03, 2014 and there will be no official entertainment during this period," it said.

The National flag, which has been flown half mast on Tuesday in Delhi and capitals of the states and Union territories as a mark of respect for the Bharataiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, will be flown same way on the day of the funeral at the site.

The Maharashtra strongman died in a road accident in New Delhi on Tuesday morning.

The mishap took place at around 6.30 am when he was on his way to the Indira Gandhi International Airport from where he was scheduled to catch a flight to Mumbai.  

According to reports, an Indica car hit Munde's Ambassador car when it was moving from Lodhi Road towards the Aurobindo Chowk.

He was rushed to the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where he was declared dead.

 "There was no breathing, no pulse, no cardiac function when Mr Munde was brought to the hospital. Despite efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 7.20 am," AIIMS spokesperson Dr Amit Gupta was quoted as saying by CNN-IBN.

As per reports, the BJP leader sustained multiple head, chest and spinal injuries.

He was said to have lost considerable amount of blood in the mishap.

Munde, a diabetic patient, fell down from the car and asked to be taken to a hospital when his security guard helped him.

Munde was suspected to have suffered a cardiac arrest while he was being taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

After the accident, the police arrested the driver of the Indica car, who was later released on bail,

Munde was 64 and is survived by his wife and three daughters.

His body was flown to to Mumbai on Tuesday evening, where BJP workers paid their respects at the BJP headquarters in the city.

His body will be taken to Latur and then to his hometown Parli in Beed district of Maharashtra, where the last rites will be performed on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a special train was arranged  from Mumbai CST to Latur for all those who wanted to pay homage to Munde.

"A special train from Mumbai's CST to Latur to leave at 10.00 pm for those who want to pay homage to #GopinathMunde," the PM tweetedon Tuesday.

Political leaders across party lines, including Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday paid their last tributes to Munde at the BJP headquarters here.  

Janata Dal-United national president Sharad Yadav, Biju Janata Dal leader Jay Panda, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule also paid their last respects to Munde.

Senior leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Anant Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu and Smriti Irani paid their homage to their departed colleague.