OROP Suicide: Rahul Gandhi & Kejriwal reaches ex-soldier’s cremation

TIL Desk/National/Bhiwani (Haryana)/ Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has arrived in the ex-soldier Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal’s native Bamla village to attend the cremation to be held later on Thursday. The former soldier’s body was brought to his village in Haryana’s Bhiwani district on Thursday morning after it was handed over to his family members in New Delhi.

With the veteran’s body now in Bhiwani, the political drama by leaders of various parties, who had made a beeline for the Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi on Wednesday, was expected to shift here. Gandhi was among the first political leaders to reach. He met Grewal’s widow, sons and other family members. He was accompanied by senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Selja and others.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted his decision to reach here. Congress MP Deepinder Hooda had already reached and shared condolences with the Grewals earlier. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’ Brien also arrived in Bamla to meet the family.

“I have come here on the directions of our leader Mamta Banerjee to be with the (Grewal) family,” Brien told media here. Grewal, 70, formerly of Rajputana Rifles, allegedly consumed poison at a park in New Delhi on Tuesday evening and died demanding the immediate implementation of the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme.