Chennai: The mortal remains of the Union Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party ideologue Murasoli Maran, were consigned to flames in an electric crematorium at Besant Nagar in South Chennai, with full State honours.

A gun salute was accorded to the late leader before the body of the 69-year-old Central Minister was put inside the furnace of the electric crematorium AT 18.45 hrs (IST).

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister I K Gujral, Defence Minister George Fernandes, several Central Ministers, Tamil Nadu Governor P S Ramamohan Rao, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Yerran Naidu and leaders of various political parties and film personalities attended the funeral.

Vajpayee, Gujral and Fernandes paid their last respects by placing wreaths on the body before it was taken to the cremating pad.

Earlier the body, draped in national tri-colour, was placed in a flower-bedecked military van, which inched towards the crematorium. People in their thousands lined up on both sides of the roads to have a close look at the departed leader, who practically spent the last few months in a US hospital and a corporate hospital in Chennai, fighting for his life for nearly 14 months.

A grief-stricken maternal uncle and former State Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and other VIPs accompanied the funeral procession. Family members of Maran, including Maran's wife traveled in the military van upto the cremation grounds and at the cremation grounds Karunanidhi almost broke down and had to be consoled by family members.

Maran started his career as a film dialogue writer in 1956 and came a long way up in his public life. He was the editor of DMK mouthpiece 'Murasoli' from 1967. He shot into limelight when he won the by-election to Lok Sabha in 1967 from South Madras. The by-election was necessitated following the resignation of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK founder C N Annadurai who took over as the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He was fortunate enough in having Rajaji, Annadurai and IUML leader Mohammed Ismail as his proposers in the nominations for the by-poll. He never looked back from then on. Maran was arrested during the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965 and was a MISA detenue during the Emergency. During his detention, he suffered physical injuries and deposed before the Ismail Commission of Inquiry which probed the jail excesses. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1967 and 1971. During the 1977 Lok Sabha polls, he was defeated by former President R Venkataraman, the Congress nominee for South Madras, and was subsequently elected to Rajya Sabha. He was again elected to Lok Sabha in 1996, 1998 and 1999 from Central Madras. PTI