New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS): President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and other prominent leaders as well as the common people Wednesday paid tribute to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 28th death anniversary.

The president and vice president visited Shakti Sthal, Indira Gandhi's memorial on the right bank of the Yamuna river here, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

The leaders offered floral tributes as devotional songs played in the background.

Massive crowds gathered at the memorial as people from all walks of life remembered Indira Gandhi and paid homage to her.

Indira Gandhi, daughter of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was born Nov 19, 1917. She became the first woman prime minister of the country from 1966 to 1977 and later from 1980 to 1984. She was assassinated by two of her bodyguards Oct 31, 1984.

Wednesday was also the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a ceremony was organised in Sansad Bhawan - the British era cirular Parliament House - where the prime minister along with other leaders paid their tributes to the first home minister of independent India.