While thanking people on behalf of his family for sharing the sorrow, Jagan appealed to them not to lose heart or commit suicide - as more than 100 people did after YSR's body was recovered.

'The best way of paying your tribute for the departed soul is by carrying on his mantle and by making sure that all his programmes and ideologies are carried on and completed,' he said.

Thanking Gandhi and her family for their support to his late father, Jagan said without their backing it would not have been possible for YSR to scale the heights he had reached.

'We are particularly grateful to Smt. Sonia Gandhi for her immense support and help to my father at all crucial times. She stood like a rock behind my father and supported him wholeheartedly throughout his career,' the young MP said.