Chennai, February 26 Hundreds of leaders, party members, and the public joined Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin in bidding farewell to centenarian Communist leader R Nallakannu on Thursday.
The government bestowed full state honors on the veteran leader of the CPI, who died on February 25, due to age-related ailments. He passed away at 1:55 pm at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here.
As announced by the chief minister, police personnel gave a 72-gun salute and sounded the bugle as a mark of respect to the leader, whose mortal remains were kept at Balan Illam, the CPI party headquarters in T Nagar here, for the public to pay their respects.
Besides Stalin, CPI general secretary D Raja, state secretary M Veerapandian, MDMK chief Vaiko, and several other leaders and party members were present at the event.
Nallakannu's body was draped in the party flag and taken in a procession, with hundreds of party members participating.
The body was later handed over to the Madras Medical College authorities for research, as per the wish of the veteran leader.
Earlier, the chief minister paid his last respects by placing a wreath on Nallakannu's mortal remains and hailed him as a "lifelong warrior."
Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, several leaders from various political parties, including superstar Rajinikanth and actor-politician Kamal Haasan, and TVK founder Vijay, also paid their last respects at the party office.
"Comrade Nallakannu had become a legend of the Communist movement. He organized movements for the upliftment of Dalits and other marginalized communities, and strived to establish social justice and secularism," said MDMK chief Vaiko.
Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister L Murugan, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami were among the leaders who had earlier paid their rich tributes to Nallakannu.