The last rites of K.S. Puttannaiah, the veteran Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) leader and MLA representing Melkote segment, will be performed at his native village Kyathanahalli near Pandavapura on Thursday with full state honours.
Ramya (Divya Spandana), former MP and social media cell president of the All-India Congress Committee, Housing Minister M. Krishnappa, his Cabinet colleagues, senior BJP and JD(S) leaders, government officials, writers and farmers’ leaders from across the State are expected to attend the funeral.
Puttannaiah, elected from the Karnataka Sarvodaya Party, breathed his last following a cardiac arrest on Sunday. Since then, the body had been kept at JSS Medical College in Mysuru as his daughters were yet to arrive from the United States, where they are settled.
According to sources in the KRRS, the body will be brought to Kyathanahalli on Thursday morning and kept for public viewing at Pandavapura. Farmers and members of the public will be allowed to pay tribute to the late leader on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway near Srirangapatna for a brief period.
The body will be later taken to the farmland of Puttannaiah at Kyathanahalli for cremation, which is expected to be completed by 12.30 p.m. Senior revenue and police officials visited Kyathanahalli on Wednesday to supervise the preparations for the cremation.
Crowd expected
Farmers from different parts of the State, mainly the old Mysore region, are expected to reach Kyathanahalli to attend the funeral. Over 5,000 farmers from the northern parts of Karnataka were expected to reach by Wednesday midnight. Accommodation will be provided at local school buildings, temples, and premises of ‘aalemane’ (traditional jaggery-making units) and rice mills, KRRS sources said.
Traffic jams are expected when the body is beough from Mysuru to Kyathanahalli on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway on Thursday. In such a case, restrictions will be imposed on vehicular movement on the highway, police sources said.
