Chennai: Hours after DMK chief M. Karunanidhi died here today after waging a grim battle for life for 11 days, a major controversy erupted over where he will be buried.
Karunanidhi, one of the most charismatic leaders of Tamil Nadu whose public life spanned over seven decades, was 94.
He is survived by two wives and six children, including DMK working president and heir apparent M.K. Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP.
The controversy erupted after the state government rejected the DMK’s demand for allotting space for Karunanidhi’s burial on the Marina beach, instead offering space near the memorials to former chief ministers Chakravarty Rajagopalachari and K. Kamraj at Guindy.
Setting the stage for a courtroom drama, the DMK moved the Madras high court against the government’s decision and acting chief justice Huluvadi G. Ramesh is set to hold a special hearing at his residence at 10.30 pm tonight.
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 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 allot 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 protégé J. Jayalalithaa were buried at the Marina beach and memorials to them were erected there. Both were Karunanidhi’s bitter foes in politics.