New Delhi:
President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among a host of leaders who On Wednesday paid floral tributes to the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his 45th death anniversary.
Vice President Hamid Ansari and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi paid homage at Shanti Van, the memorial of Nehru, as priests recited hymns from sacred texts.
Defense Minister A K Antony, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and former Home Minister Shivraj Patil were among the first to pay floral tributes to the late leader.
Besides them, Union Ministers Vyalar Ravi, Murli Deora Meira Kumar, Veerappa Moily, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were present on the occasion.
Further, Senior Congress leaders Motilal Vohra, Satyabrat Chaturvedi, Ashwini Kumar, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Subudh Kant Sahay and Sis Ram Ola, J P Aggarwal and Jagdish Tytler paid their homage to the first Prime Minister.
National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, former chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Congress leader Buta Singh also paid tributes to Nehru.
An all religion prayer meeting was organized in the premises of the memorial.
A speech given by Nehru was also played at the end of the prayer meet.
Nehru, who was born on November 14, 1889, died on May 27, 1964.