Muthuvel Karunanidhi, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on August 7 after prolonged illness. He was 94.
The end came at 6.10 p.m., hours after the Kauvery Hospital announced that he was "extremely critical" and "unstable". Mr. Karunanidhi was under treatment at the hospital after his health suffered a setback to his health past midnight on July 28 at his Gopalapuram residence.
Before being moved to the hospital, the nonagenarian leader was suffering from fever and infection for the past few days and was treated round-the-clock by a team of doctors and nursing personnel at his house.
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Mr. Karunanidhi fell ill in October 2016 due to a drug-induced allergy. The veteran leader was admitted to the hospital for “optimisation of nutrition and hydration” in the first week of December 2016 and later, for a throat and lung infection.
In pictures: M. Karunanidhi — a Titan of Tamil Nadu politics
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He had undergone tracheostomy, a procedure to optimise breathing.
Since then he was staying away from active politics and made only a few public appearances, the last one on June 3, 2018, when he turned 94.
On July 28, the day he was moved to the hospital, he entered his 50th year as DMK president.
Mr. Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924, at Thirukuvalai, now in Nagapattinam district (then in the composite Tanjore district) and did his schooling in nearby Tiruvarur. His father Muthuvel was a nagaswaram player and his mother Anjugam, a housewife.