Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday paid his last respects to former chief minister of Kerala and Congress Working Committee member K Karunakaran at the Thrissur townhall.
The veteran leader passed away on Thursday evening at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
The PM arrived at the Nedumbassery international airport at Cochin by around 1pm and flew to Thrissur in a naval chopper.
He paid his last respects to the departed leader along with his cabinet colleagues Defense Minister A K Antony, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Minister of State for Home Mulapally Ramachandran.
The PM consoled the departed leader's son K Muraleedharan who was a former Congress state committee president, and his daughter Padmaja Venugopal and his grand children.
The funeral of Karunakaran will be held at Murali Mandiram, his residence in Thrissur at 3.30pm on Saturday.
The Kerala Pradesh Congress committee president Ramesh Chennithala and a horde of senior leaders, ministers of the state, members of Parliament, legislatures and senior leaders of the Congress party were present at the townhall to pay their last respects to the departed leader.
The body of Karunakaran was taken to the Thrissur in a specially decorated Kerala state transport bus from Thiruvananthapuram and it took nineteen hours for the journey to culminate at Thrissur, which was hardly 350 kilometers from the state capital.
The people thronged the streets on both the sides to have a glimpse of the departed leader, who is credited for the whole development of Kerala.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had paid her last respects to Karunakaran at the Congress party state headquarters Indira Bhavan were the body was kept for the public to pay their last respects on Friday.
Image: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pays his last respects to former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran | Photograph: S K Mohan
