India's financial capital Mumbai came to a standstill Sunday as thousands of people thronged the streets to pay their last respects to a prominent Hindu nationalist leader, Bal Thackarey, who died Saturday at the age of 86.

Thackarey, the chief of Shiv Sena party, died at his home in Mumbai after a brief illness, doctors said.

Politicians cutting across party lines, eminent businessmen and Bollywood film stars paid their last respects to Thackarey whose body was kept at Shivaji Park throughout the day, along with thousands of his followers.

The city have deployed 40,000 police to prevent any kind of untoward incident and shops and theatres have been shut for the day. The police have appealed for calm to Shiv Sena supporters.

Thackarey, who started his career as a newspaper cartoonist, entered politics in the 1960s and became popular when he founded Shiv Sena which favored jobs for local Marathas in the state of Maharashtra.