A massive controversy erupted tonight after the Tamil Nadu government rejected opposition DMK's demand for allotting space on the Marina beach for the burial of its leader M Karunanidhi and offered space near the memorials of former chief ministers C Rajagopalachari and K Kamaraj.
Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, besides actor Rajinikanth backed the DMK's demand and urged the government to allot the leader a space on the famed sands.
Incidentally, the development came on a day when a PIL filed in the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the Corporation of Greater Chennai from permitting any burial of bodies on the famous Marina Beach was dismissed as withdrawn today.
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 had 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."
Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that like the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi was an expression of the voice of the Tamil people and that he "deserves to be given space on the Marina beach."
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury described the denial of burial site at the Marina as "unfortunate."