Yadav, who is a leader of Opposition in Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha shared two photographs from the site where his father was cremated and wrote, "Aaj pehli baar laga…bin suraj ke uga savera (Felt as if the morning arrived without the sun)," in Hindi.
Tens of thousands of people also turned up at the funeral of Samajwadi Party patriarch, bidding farewell to a leader who influenced politics far beyond his home state.
Akhilesh Yadav lit the funeral pyre in the Safai’s Mela ground, where people had begun gathering hours in advance filling up all available space.
Among those who came to Saifai to pay their respects were Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, and CPI (M) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, actor, and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan and her son Abhishek Bachchan also attended the funeral.
Yadav's body was moved around 10 am Tuesday from the family bungalow to a hall on the Mela ground premises to allow people to pay their last respects. A large number had queued up for a final glimpse.
His son Akhilesh Yadav, brother Shivpal Yadav and other family members were on the flower bedecked truck that brought the body for the funeral.
People walked with the cortege, many chanting "Netaji amar rahe".
Businessman Anil Ambani, NCP leader Supriya Sule, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, and Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh were present as the three-time chief minister was to consigned to flames.
Born on November 22, 1939, into a farming family in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav spawned the state’s most prominent political clan.
He was elected an MLA 10 times and an MP, mostly from Mainpuri and Azamgarh, seven times. He was also the Defence Minister (1996-98), and chief minister thrice (1989-91, 1993-95, and 2003-07). And briefly, he even appeared to have a shot at the prime minister’s post.
The party was in a position to form the state government a fourth time in 2012, but Mulayam Yadav stepped aside to let Akhilesh become the chief minister.
But squabbling between the party and the family led to a coup of sorts by Akhilesh Yadav in 2017. In the final years of his life, the ailing patriarch played a diminishing role in the affairs of the party that he had founded. They still called him "Netaji", though.
