Leaders, public pay homage to Ananth Kumar

BENGALURU: A stream of leaders and supporters Tuesday paid their last respects to Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader

Ananth Kumar

, who passed away on Monday.


The body was taken from his Basavanagudi residence, where it was kept since Monday morning to Jagannath Bhavan, the BJP state headquarters at Malleshwarm, in a decorated military vehicle with personnel of the three services- the Army, Navy and Air Force- accompanying it.

The procession began, with supporters chanting slogans "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", "Ananth Kumar Amar Rahe". State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa and party's General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao were present at the state BJP office, where a pall of gloom has descended.

Several BJP leaders including Union Minister Sadananada Gowda, R Ashoka, K S Eshwarappa, Anurag Thakur,

Pralhad Joshi

, and hundreds of party workers paid their last respects to the departed leader at the party office, where the body will be kept for about an hour.

Kumar's mortal remains will then be shifted to the National College Ground, which falls in his constituency, for the public to pay homage, before the funeral at Chamarajapet crematorium in the afternoon.

The central government has announced a state funeral for Kumar. According to sources close to the family, Kumar's brother Nanda Kumar will perform the last rites according to Brahmin traditions.

The 59-year-old Bangalore South MP breathed his last around 2 am on Monday at the Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre where he was under care after returning home in October following treatment in the US and Britain.

Besides Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Harsh Vardhan, Radha Mohan Singh, Ramdas Atavale, Mahesh Sharma, Ashwinikumar Choube and Ramkripal Yadav would pay homage on Tuesday, party sources said.