The Opposition Congress in Rajasthan on May 16 took exception to the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s failure to give State honours at the funeral of veteran party leader Kamla Beniwal, whose tenure as the Governor of Gujarat from 2009 to 2014 was marked by differences with the State government led by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The last rites of Ms. Beniwal, who died after a brief illness at the age of 97 years on Wednesday, were performed at Lalkothi cremation ground here on Thursday. Her body, draped in the Congress flag, was earlier kept at her residence to enable her party colleagues and the public at large to pay homage to the departed leader.
Ms. Beniwal, elected an MLA for seven terms from Jaipur district, became Rajasthan’s first woman Minister in 1954 at the age of 27 years and held various portfolios, including Home, Health, Education, and Agriculture in the subsequent years. She was appointed the Deputy Chief Minister in the first Ashok Gehlot government in 2003.
