Karunanidhi's body to be brought to Rajaji hall for homage

The body of former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi will be kept at Chennai's Rajaji Hall to let the political leaders, public and party cadres pay homage, the DMK said on Tuesday.

Karunanidhi's body will be brought to Rajaji Hall in the Government Estate in Chennai at 4 am on Wednesday. The arrangements have already been made for people to pay their homage, said the party.

On Tuesday night, the body will be brought to the leader's Gopalapuram residence and kept there till 1 am on Wednesday. Later, it will be taken to the CIT Colony residence of Karunandihi's daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi to enable their family members to pay homage, the party said in a release.

DMK cadres continued to throng the Kauvery Hospital premises, from where Karunanidhi's body, was taken to his Gopalapuram residence. 

The place for the burial of the leader is still under doubts as the Tamil Nadu government rejected the DMK's demand for allotting space on the Marina beach. The government offered space near the memorials of former chief ministers C Rajagopalachari and K Kamraj.

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 had 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. 

Former chief minister M G Ramachandran and his protegee J Jayalalitha were buried at the Marina beach and memorials to them were erected there. Both were bitter foes of Karunanidhi in politics. 

Karunanidhi's predecessor Annadurai was also in office when he died. DMK cadres held impromptu protests and engaged in sloganeering demanding a place for Karunanidhi's burial at the Marina beach.