Union Minister Ananth Kumar to be laid to rest with state honours in Bengaluru today

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar, who died on Monday morning at a hospital in Bengaluru, will be cremated on Tuesday afternoon with a state funeral. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP President Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan are expected to attend the funeral.

"A state funeral with 21-gun salute and guard of honour will be accorded to the mortal remains of Ananth Kumar," an official said.

Union Minister Ananth Kumar accorded state honours in Bengaluru; BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal present pic.twitter.com/SuDfPcSnGo

— ANI (@ANI) November 13, 2018

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The mortal remains of Kumar were kept at his Basavanagudi residence on Monday. The body will be taken to the state BJP office and the National College ground, which falls in his constituency, before the funeral at Chamarajapete crematorium in the afternoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew into the city from Varanasi in the evening and met Kumar's family. He offered his condolences and laid a wreath on the glass casket draped in the tricolour. PM Modi described him as a remarkable leader, an able administrator and a great asset to the BJP. President Ram Nath Kovind termed his death as "tragic loss".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaches at the residence of #AnanthKumar in Bengaluru, to pay tribute to the late Union Minister. pic.twitter.com/fBAqbFAxHw

— ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2018

Kumar, the 59-year-old Bengaluru South MP passed away around 2 am at the Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre where he had been on the ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the last few days. However, there was no official bulletin from the hospital.

"The cancer had spread to other parts of his body that resulted in his multi-organ failure and death," the BJP's state unit spokesman S Shantaram said as quoted by NDTV.

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Karnataka has announced a three-day state mourning and educational institutions and offices were closed on Monday.

The parliamentarian from south Bengaluru constituency held charge of two ministries in the Narendra Modi government -- Chemicals and Fertilisers since May 2014 and Parliamentary Affairs since July 2016.