DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan passes away at 97 in Chennai

Kalyanasundaram Anbazhagan, the general secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for 43 years, passed away in Chennai on Friday night at the age of 97 due to age-related illnesses, news agencies reported.

He died at 1:05 AM at the city's Apollo Hospital, where he had been admitted for a while due to prolonged illness. The official cause of Anbazhagan's death was reported to be multiple organ failure due to his old age. His health had become "extremely critical and unstable" since late last month, several reports confirmed

The DMK general secretary's last public appearance was on December 19, 2019, following which he had minimised activities and remained out of public sight on account of poor health.

The mortal remains of Anbazhagan were kept at his residence in Kizhpakkam, Chennai on Saturday morning.

Tamil Nadu: Mortal remains of DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan kept at his residence in Kizhpakkam, Chennai. He passed away last night at the age of 97, at a hospital in Chennai following prolonged illness. pic.twitter.com/FQmlmYLezk

— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2020

DMK president MK Stalin released an official statement on behalf of the party to condole the leader's demise. The DMK has also declared a seven-day mourning period to mark the death of its long-term general secretary.

"DMK condoles the demise of General Secretary K Anbazhagan. DMK postpones all its party functions for one week and all DMK flags to fly half-mast for a week," the statement read.

K Anbazhagan served as the General Secretary of the DMK, as well as a Tamil Nadu MLA, on nine occasions. Under the Karunanidhi regime, he had served as the education minister and finance minister of the state. He also held sound knowledge of Tamil poetry, having published collections of such.