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Kerala bids farewell to political colossus Oommen Chandy
As per the veteran Congress leader’s last wishes, the funeral was conducted without any official state honours. Only religious rituals were performed
KOCHI: After two days of public mourning, during which hundreds of thousands of people thronged different venues in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Puthupally to pay their respects, former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy was laid to rest late Thursday night at the St George Orthodox Church in his hometown.
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As per the veteran Congress leader’s last wishes, the funeral was conducted without any official state honours. Only religious rituals were performed.
A galaxy of senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan, former LoP Ramesh Chennithala, numerous MPs, MLAs, and hundreds of party workers as well as members of the public were present on the church premises for the former CM’s funeral.
Though the last rites were initially scheduled to be held at 2 pm on Thursday, the funeral procession which began from Chandy’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday morning took over 28 hours to reach Kottayam, 150 kilometres away. A KSRTC low-floor AC bus, turned into a hearse, crawled slowly along the busy MC Road as hundreds of thousands had turned up braving sun and rain to pay their respects. Teary-eyed Congress workers shouted slogans like ‘kanne, karale, Kunjunje’ (our eyes, our hearts, dear Kunjunju) as Chandy was affectionately called by those close to him. His son, Chandy Oommen, stood near his father’s body inside the bus and waved to crowds, thanking them for turning up.
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The surging crowds included elderly men and women, pregnant ladies, children, physically-disabled persons who waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the man who had touched their lives directly or indirectly. As CM between 2011 and 2016, Chandy had organised the widely-popular ‘jana samparka paripadi’ (mass contact programme) across districts to listen to public grievances directly and resolve them on the spot. There were testimonies of people who said that they could walk into his MLA office in Puthupally whenever he was in town to relay their problems even when he was the chief minister. The large public crowds, cutting across social and religious communities, attested to the veteran leader’s popularity and influence in the state.
Chandy, who served as the state’s chief minister twice and was a member of the cabinet four times, succumbed to cancer-related complications at a private hospital in Bengaluru at the age of 79. He holds the record for being the longest-served MLA in Kerala Assembly, having represented his pocketborough of Puthupally continuously since 1970 over 12 terms. The late CM is survived by his wife Mariyamma, son Chandy and daughters Achu and Maria.
