Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will arrive tomorrow morning for a seven-hour visit to attend the funeral of President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife Suvra, who passed away today.

Hasina will land at 8am and fly back at 3pm, after meetings with Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence. She will attend the last rites at 13 Talkatora Road, the official residence of Pranab’s son and Congress MP Abhijit.

Pranab had visited Bangladesh on his first foreign trip as President in 2013.

Suvra, 74, breathed her last at 10.51am in the intensive care unit of the Army Hospital-Research and Referral, where she was admitted on August 7 after complaining of breathlessness. She is survived by, apart from Pranab, sons Abhijit and Indrajit and daughter Sharmistha, who is a Congress spokesperson.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Najma Heptulla, junior minister Babul Supriyo and CPM MP Brinda Karat were among those who paid their respects.

Mamata Banerjee arrived from Calcutta with minister Subrata Mukherjee and MPs Abhishek Banerjee, Subhendu Adhikari, Dinesh Trivedi and Derek O’Brien to offer her condolences. When she reached Talkatora Road at 9.45pm, the road was cordoned off as the President was at his son’s residence. The Bengal chief minister left her car behind and walked to the house.

Mamata had cut short a Trinamul meeting at Nazrul Manch this evening to leave for Delhi.

“Today, we have lost someone very close to us, someone who was a part of our family, a part of our home. Suvra boudi has seen many of us grow up. I will forever be indebted to her for the love I have received from her,” Mamata said.

“I have known boudi for more than three decades. She was simple, loveable and a caring housewife,” she added.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Nation> Story / by Our Bureau / Wednesday – August 19th, 2015