Chennai: DMK chief M Karunanidhi, a colossus of Dravidian politics, died here on Tuesday after waging a grim battle for life for 11 days even as a major controversy erupted over where he will be buried.
Karunanidhi, one of the most charismatic leaders of Tamil Nadu whose public life spanned over seven decades, was 94. He is survived by two wives and six children, including DMK working president and heir apparent MK Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP. His first wife had predeceased him.
The most enduring mascot of the Dravidian movement breathed his last at 6.10 pm.
“With deep anguish we announce the demise of our beloved Kalaignar M Karunanidhi on 07.08.2018 at 6.10 pm. Despite the best possible efforts by our team of doctors and nurses to resuscitate him, he failed to respond.
A major controversy has, meanwhile, erupted after the state government rejected the DMK’s demand for alloting space for Karunanidhi’s burial on the Marina beach and offered space near the memorials to former chief ministers Chakravarty Rajagopalachari and K Kamraj at Guindy.
Incidentally, the development came on a day when a PIL filed in the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the Corporation of Greater Chennai from permitting any burial of bodies on the famous Marina Beach was dismissed as withdrawn on Tuesday.
DMK working president M K Stalin, recalling the long public life of Karunanidhi, had written to Chief Minister K Palaniswami seeking space inside the mausoleum complex of the departed leader’s mentor C N Annadurai at the Marina.
Stalin also met the chief minister hours before his father’s death.
A government statement said it was “unable to allot space at Marina beach owing to several pending cases in the Madras High Court and legal complications.” Hence, the government is prepared to allott a two-acre site on Sardar Patel Road near the memorials to Rajaji and Kamaraj, it said.
Some reports said the government was reluctant about allotting space for Karunanidhi’s burial at the Marina as he was not a sitting chief minister.
President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned Karunanidhi’s death. Congress president Rahul Gandhi also took to Twitter to condole Karunanidhi’s death. Both Modi and Gandhi will be here on Wednesday to pay their last respects to the leader.
There is no official word yet from the DMK about when the last rites of the leader will take place. (PTI)
