The mortal remains of Congress MP Rajeev Satav, who died after recovering from COVID-19, were consigned to flames with state honours at his native place Kalamnuri in Maharashtra's Hingoli district on Monday. Several key Congress leaders, including AICC in-charge of Maharashtra H K Patil, party's Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole and state ministers Ashok Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar, Aslam Shaikh, Nitin Raut, Varsha Gaikwad, Satej Patil, Vishwajeet Kadam and other party workers were present at the funeral.
Satav (46), considered as a close associate of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, died at a hospital in Pune on Sunday, days after recovering from the coronavirus infection. The late Rajya Sabha member's family members bid him an emotional farewell as his mortal remains were consigned to flames at his native place on Monday.
Paying tributes to the late leader, Shaikh said, "...he would always talk about the issues concerning the people of Maharashtra...the farmers have lost their leader. He is not among us. I am speechless."
Kadam described Satav as his "big brother and mentor".
Satav was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Pune after testing coronavirus positive last month and was on ventilator support. A media release by the Jehangir Hospital in Pune had said Satav succumbed to "secondary pneumonia with multi-organ dysfunction syndrome".
He had become "RT-PCR swab negative" on May 9, it said.
