Kottayam: The sky was clear but the atmosphere was thick with emotions as the hearse carrying the body of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reached the Thirunakkara Maidanam in the heart of the city on Thursday. The funeral procession which started from Thiruvananthapuram at 7.20 am on Wednesday reached Kottayam town around 11 am on Thursday, over 10 hours behind the schedule. The procession took 28 hours to cover the distance between the capital city and Chandy’s hometown as thousands of people from all walks of life thronged the itinerary to have a final glimpse of the Congress veteran.

The procession reached Thirunakkara Maidanam, where Chandy has addressed a number of political rallies, after a brief stay at the District Congress Committee office. Thousands of people had thronged Thirunakkara from early morning even as the temple town remained almost shut as a mark of respect to the departed leader. The body was received at Thirunakkara amid emotionally charged sloganeering by Congress workers.

A galaxy of Congress leaders from the state converged at the Maidanam to bid adieu to Chandy whose final journey has undoubtedly proven that he was one of the biggest crowd pullers in the party’s history in the state. Union Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar paid tributes to Chandy at Thirunakkara as a representative of the Centre.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose also paid respect to the leader at Thirunakkara.

A host of CPM leaders, including politburo member M A Baby and Left Democratic Front convener E P Jayarajan also reached Thirunakkara to offer their final tributes to the Congress stalwart.

From the cultural fraternity, actors Mammootty, former Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi, Dileep and Ramesh Pisharody were on the stage to receive the mortal remains of Chandy to Thirunakkara.

Congress general secretary in charge of Kerala, Tariq Anwar, was at Thirunakkara. Former party president Rahul Gandhi will be in attendance at the funeral to be held at St George Church, Puthuppally at 7:30 pm. Thousands of people, from different parts of the state cutting across party lines, queued up through the town to pay their final respects to Chandy.