Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s mother Lakshmi Palaniappan, 92, passed away at her residence here on Friday morning after a brief illness.
Besides Mr. Chidambaram, she is survived by P. Lakshmanan and daughter Uma Narayanan.
Mr. Chidambaram, who was in Delhi, reached his mother’s house at San Thome around 10 a.m.
Lakshmi Palaniappan, daughter of the philanthropist and founder of Annamalai University, Raja Annamalai Chettiar, last attended a public function here in December last and received the first copy of a book on Mr. Chidambaram from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi.
As per her pledge, her eyes were donated to Sankara Nethralaya. In the evening, the mortal remains were consigned to flames in a traditional funeral at the Mylapore crematorium.
Raja Annamalai Chettiar’s grandsons, M.A.M. Ramaswamy and A.C. Muthiah, were present.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up Mr. Chidambaram to express their condolence. Among those who paid their last respects were Governor K. Rosaiah; Union Ministers Jayanthi Natarajan, G. K. Vasan, K. Chiranjeevi and V. Narayanaswamy; several political leaders, including the former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, K.V. Thangkabalu. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a condolence message.
