Tearful adieu to Kerala Speaker G Karthikeyan

Kerala Assembly speaker G Karthikeyan, who passed away following multi-organ failure, was cremated with full state honors here today after thousands of mourners paid their homage.
His body was consigned to flames at the crematorium at Thycaud here tonight.
The 66-year-old Karthikeyan had been admitted to the HCG Cancer Centre in Bengaluru for Hepato Cellular Cancer (liver cancer) some days ago and he passed away after his condition deteriorated due to multi-organ failure yesterday.
A huge crowd of mourners waited patiently for hours to pay their last respects to the departed Congress leader at the Assembly complex, state secretariate, KPCC Headquarters Indira Bhavan, a government school in his constituency at Aryanad and his home at Shasthamangalam here.

State Governor P Sathasivam, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, a host of Congress, CPI(M) and BJP leaders and those from the socio-cultural and cinema fields were among those who paid homage to Karthikeyan who battled liver cancer since the past few months.
The last religious rites were performed by his two sons, Ananthapadmanabhan and Shabarinathan and close relatives at a specially erected pandal as Chandy, his cabinet collegues, Opposition leader V S Achuthananan, former Union Ministers A K Antony, Veerappa Moily and AICC General Secretary in charge of Kerala Mukul Wasnik looked on.
The funeral pyre was lit around by 7.30 pm amidst chanting of prayers.

Known as 'gentleman politician', Karthikeyan was acceptable to all politicians cutting across party lines. He was a minister twice in the A K Antony Cabinet -- in 1995 and 2001- and also had been six-time MLA.