New Delhi: Today is the birth anniversary of former prime Minister and  Bharat Ratna awardee Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhi was born on 20 August 1944. The entire nation was shocked when he was assassination in 1991 in a bomb blast at an election rally. The Prime Minister was killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LLTE), an armed Tamil separatist organisation based in Sri Lanka.

He had a busy election campaign

Being a Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi had a busy election campaign in May 1991. In this order, he had to address a rally in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur. As per schedule, Gandhi reached the venue of the election rally at around 10 AM. There were two separate galleries made for men and women at the rally venue.

Killed in blast at rally

Rajiv Gandhi first visited the men’s gallery and then he went to visit the women’s gallery. It is said that while visiting the women’s gallery a lady was trying to come to him, when security personnel stopped her, Rajiv Gandhi forbade them to do so. The woman was Kalaivani Rajaratnam  Dhanu), she bent down to touch Rajiv Gandhi’s feet, and she detonated the RDX explosive-filled belt tied under her dress.

14 other people were killed along with Prime Minister

In the blast, Rajiv Gandhi, his assassin Dhanu and 14 others were killed and a large number of people were also injured. Rajiv Gandhi was the grandson of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the eldest son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi. He was married to Sonia Gandhi.

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