New Delhi, April 14. (PTI): President K R Narayanan, Vice- President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the nation in paying homage to the architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr B R Ambedkar, on his 109th birth anniversary today. (Photo by V Sudershan shows Narayanan, Vajpayee, Krishan Kant, Speaker Balayogi and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi at a function to mark the birth anniversary of Ambedkar in New Delhi, on Friday.)

Narayanan, Kant, Vajpayee and Gandhi visited Parliament House early this morning and offered floral tributes to the statue of late Ambedkar.

Balayogi, Union Ministers L K Advani, Satyanarayan Jatiya, C P Thakur, Munni Lal and O Rajagopal, deputy leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia, Haryana Governor Mahabir Prasad also paid floral tributes to Ambedkar, who throughout his life fought for equality and social justice for the downtrodden.

Rajesh Pilot, Sushil Kumar Shinde, H Hanumanthappa (Congress), Sanghpriya Gautam and Ram Nath Kovindra (BJP) and Yerran Naidu (TDP) were the other leaders besides several MPs, and admirers of Ambedkar who offered their tribute to him on the occasion.

A large number of people from different sections of the society also visited parliament complex and offered their homage to one of the leading figures of the last century, whose vision, patriotism and commitment enabled him to awaken the depressed classes and establish the concept of social equality and justice as one of the fundamental principles of the Indian Constitution.

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