A mourning Kerala led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan bade a tearful farewell to Kodiyeri Balakrishnnan, the former CPI(M) State Secretary and former Home Minister of the State who succumbed to cancer in a Chennai hospital last Saturday. Balakrishnan whose name was synonymous with Kodiyeri, his native village by the same name, was cremated at Payyambalam abutting the Arabian Sea with full State honours on Monday. An unprecedented crowd had gathered at Thalassery and Payyambalam to pay homage to the departed leader.
In a hitherto unseen chapter of Kerala’s political history, Chief Minister Vijayan, CPI(M)’s all India secretary Sitaram Yechury and former party boss Prakash Karat acted as pall bearers while the mortal remains were carried from the ambulance to the funeral pyre.
Bineesh and Binoy, the two sons of Balakrishnan lit the funeral pyre amidst slogan shouting by thousands of party cadres who chanted the Malayalam equivalent of “Comrade Kodiyeri is immortal, Kodiyeri had not died and He will live through us”.
Heart rending scenes were in display throughout the last journey of Balakrishnan as P K Sreemathi, former minister of health too joined the pall bearers. Sreemathi was seen sobbing uncontrollably since Sunday when the body was brought from Chennai by air ambulance to Kannur.
The Kodiyeri family including Vinodini Balakrishnan, the sons, their spouses and grandchildren were in attendance throughput the function.