Lucknow, Aug 24 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey on Friday handed over the urns containing the ashes of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to party functionaries and ministers, to take them to different districts of the state where they will be immersed in 16 rivers.

After paying tributes to the party stalwart at the state headquarters, the urns were given to party office bearers in the presence of deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya and organization secretary of the UP unit Sunil Bansal.

Amid sloganeering and cheers for the late prime minister, the vehicles carrying the urns started out from the state unit office.

The ashes will be immersed later in the day in the Ganga river in Bithoor, Kanpur, Saryu in Ayodhya and Rapti river in Balrampur, from where Vajpayee was once a Lok Sabha MP. The ashes of the late leader will be immersed in 13 other rivers on Saturday.