CHENNAI: After a knee replacement surgery a year ago, 82-year-old Vasanthi had severe pain every time she walked. But this was the last thing on her mind when she decided to walk from her house at Thousand Lights up to Anna Memorial to see the mortal remains of DMK president M Karunanidhi. “It was because of Kalaignar people like me slept without an empty stomach. I feel like I have lost a family member,” she said.
Women are the next largest category of people after farmers, whose lives were changed for the better under a slew of schemes, such as the health insurance scheme that was later expanded, launched by Karunanidhi when he was in power. Clad in black and red sarees with rising sun motif, many members of the party’s women’s wing were seen reaching Rajaji Hall and Anna Memorial in mini-vans and buses.
Some 50 women cadres from RK Nagar women’s party wing who were praying for their leader’s recovery outside Kauvery Hospital for a week, gathered on Wallajah Road to see his mortal remains. Muthulatha, one of the cadre, travelled from Tenkasi. “I did not come all the way to see him pass away. It is because of Kalaignar so many poor women got married and I was one of them,” she said crying.