‘Captain’ Vijayakanth cremated at DMDK headquarters
Chennai: A large number of people gathered on the streets of the metropolis on Friday to bid a tearful farewell to actor-politician Vijayakanth and it took almost four hours for the vehicle carrying his coffin to reach his party headquarters, a distance of 10 kilometers from the Island Ground. Got engaged. , where he was laid to rest.
Vijayakanth, whose last rites were performed with full state honours, was given a 72-gun salute by the Tamil Nadu Police, while Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Cabinet colleagues and senior leaders stood silent.
Vijayakanth’s wife Premalatha, his two sons – Vijaya Prabhakaran and Shanmuga Pandian – his brother Sudesh and family members took a last look at him before the coffin was lowered into the pit dug at the DMDK headquarters in Koyambedu.
Although Vijayakanth was a devout Hindu, he was buried in the same manner as leaders like C N Annadurai, MG Ramachandran, J Jayalalitha and M Karunanidhi – the final resting places of all four have memorials built on Marina Beach.
The 71-year-old breathed his last at 6.10 am on Thursday at MIOT Hospital, where he was admitted on December 26 due to pneumonia.
Vijayakanth’s mortal remains were shifted to the Island Ground near Marina Beach on Friday morning – people faced many difficulties in paying homage to him at the party office on Thursday due to limited space – where the state government allowed public darshan. Elaborate arrangements were made for. ,
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, Tamil superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan and prominent personalities from several fields paid their last tributes to Vijayakanth at the island grounds.
The final journey, which started from the island grounds at 2 pm, took nearly four hours to reach Koyambedu, a distance of 10 kilometres, as people lined up on both sides of Poonamallee High Road, one of the busiest stretches of the city, to catch a glimpse. Were standing. On the dead body of Vijaykant.
As people raised slogans like ‘Captain Zindabad’, Vijaykant’s children stood on top of the vehicle with folded hands and accepted the love of the people. Thousands of people waiting outside the party headquarters switched on the lights of their phones as the vehicle carrying Vijayakanth’s coffin passed them.
The founder of Desiya Dravida Murpokku Kazhagam (DMDK), which had challenged the Dravidian dominant DMK and AIADMK with impressive vote share in the first few elections, was unwell for the past few years.
Vijayakanth is the only actor from Tamil Nadu, where politics and the film industry have a complex relationship, to have displayed rare courage by starting his own party to challenge the supremacy of Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha when they were hyper-active in politics.
An unconventional politician, Vijayakanth was once considered a viable alternative to the Dravidian majors – the DMK and the AIADMK. A series of setbacks and his declining health sank the party, whose vote percentage declined from 10.3 percent to 0.45 percent in just 12 years.
