Hundreds of leaders and cadres of the Congress party paid their last respects to MLA of Deodurg constituency in Raichur district, A. Venkatesh Naik (79), who died in a rail accident near Penugonda in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, at about 2.30 a.m. on Monday.
As the news of the death of veteran Congress leader spread, party workers began to assemble at the District Congress Committee (DCC) office here since morning. As the body arrived in Raichur at 1 p.m., they raised slogans hailing their leader. The body was kept in the ambulance for 30 minutes at the DCC office premises for the public to pay their last respects.
DCC president and Tungabhadra Command Area Development Authority chairman A. Vasanth Kumar, former MLA A. Papareddy, Narayanpet (Telangana) MLA S.R. Reddy, State president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Chamarasa Malipatil, Congress leaders Parasmal Sukhani, Jayanna, Jayavanthrao Patange and others paid their respects.
The body was then taken to Arakera village in Deodurg taluk, the native place of the deceased leader, for performing the last rites scheduled for 5 .pm.
“KPCC president G. Parameshwar, Ministers Shamanur Shivashankarappa, Satish Jarkiholi, Qamarul Islam, Sharanprakash Patil and other leaders are expected to participate in the final rites,” A. Vasanth Kumar told The Hindu . Venkatesh Naik’s son and Raichur Lok Sabha member B.V. Naik, who was away in Chandighar, flew to Hyderabad in the morning and is on his way to Arakera by road, he added.
“I helped Venkatesh Naikji board H1 coach at Bengaluru Railway Station and was occupying my berth in B1 coach which was attached to H1. His was the third from the engine and mine was the fourth. The heavily loaded truck rammed the B1 coach exactly where Venkatesh Naik was sleeping at about 2.10 a.m. The collision was so forceful that the protective wall of the coach was ripped open and the heavy granite stone blocks smashed the passengers inside the coach,” Arun Dotarabandi, a Congress activist who was returning in the same train, after canvassing in favour of Congress candidates in BBMP elections, told The Hindu .
