Thousands gathered along National Highway-66 on Tuesday to catch a last glimpse of former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan on his final journey from the state capital to his hometown Alappuzha.
The crowd, which swelled by the minute, walked alongside the bedecked glass-partitioned AC bus carrying the body.
The cortege, which left the Durbar Hall at the state secretariat at 2.30pm on Tuesday, took four hours to reach Pattom, a distance of 2km.
Heartfelt chants rent the air, with people requesting party workers to stop the bus for a few seconds to allow them to offer their respects to the veteran Marxist leader, also known as “people’s warrior”.
“It’s really difficult to manoeuvre the bus through NH-66 because of the crowd. A second bus is following the main cortege in case there is any technical snag en route to Alappuzha,” a KSRTC official said.
“Kerala will never get to have a comrade like VS. Will we ever see a more befitting CM like comrade VS, who called a spade a spade?” said 70-year-old Saroja Padma, a retired government official who had been patiently waiting at Pattom to bid adieu to Achuthanandan.
