No State funeral for MLA: BRS cadres fume

Hyderabad: Upset with the State government not taking up the funeral of Cantonment MLA T Sayanna with state honours, the followers of the BRS MLA stopped the last rites for almost two hours raising slogans against the government at the East Marredpally crematorium on Monday.

The funeral procession reached the East Marredpally crematorium by about 5 pm on Sunday. The followers of Sayanna went to the place where his body was kept for cremation and started raising slogans against the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the government. The angry followers said that while there were state honours for the film stars but not for a five-time MLA from the weaker sections. They raised slogans demanding state honours to their MLA and also against the government stating that it had insulted the community. The followers had claimed that the government had assured them that the funeral would be done with state honours.

With crowd getting increased and with sloganeering by the followers, the ministers T Srinivas Yadav, who was overseeing the funeral arrangements and other Minister Ch Malla Reddy and others left the premises. Before this, Talasani had tried to pacify the workers but they did not relent.The Deputy Speaker T Padma Rao Goud and MLAs including Mynampally Hanumanth Rao, Maganti Gopinath talked to the family members and convinced them to allow the cremation. Padma Rao told the protestors that they should not insult the departed soul by stopping the last rites. The followers backed off after the intervention of the family members. The family members urged the followers of Sayanna to support the completion of cremation. After two hours of protest, the cremation of the MLA was taken up.

Sayanna, the five-time MLA from Cantonment passed away after a cardiac arrest on Sunday. He was suffering from diabetes and also kidney ailments. He was recently admitted in a private hospital after he fell ill. Reportedly, his leg was also removed because of infection and he was also on dialysis.