New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led the nation in paying tributes to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 71st birth anniversary.

Mukherjee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi visited Rajiv Gandhi's memorial at Vir Bhumi in the national capital to pay their tributes.

Modi tweeted: "I pay my tributes to India's former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary."

Rajiv Gandhi was born in 1944 and served as India's prime minister from 1984 to 1989. He was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during an election campaign.

(IANS)