Chants of "Amar rahe, amar rahe, Ananth Kumar amar rahe" and "Bharat mata ki jai" rent the air as leaders paid homage and the mortal remains were consigned to flames.
A six-time member of Parliament, Kumar had climbed the political ladder steadily from being an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker to be the Union minister in his thirties.
It is almost official: Unique Identification Authority of India chairman and former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from South Bangalore, the IT hub, against Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Ananth Kumar.
The Karnataka BJP core committee had proposed only Tejaswini's name for the Lok Sabha seat, but Tejaswi Surya emerged the dark horse.
While being the all important member of the BJP's parliamentary board, Kumar is often regarded as the "Delhi face" of the Karnataka BJP and also for the state government who could be counted upon for taking issues concerning Karnataka.
He may be only 28, but the now-chosen candidate for Bengaluru South has handled the party's IT cell and campaigned for several party candidates during the state polls last year.
Santosh, an RSS 'pracharak' working in the BJP since 2006, is considered an ideologue who is equally well-versed with the dynamics of electoral politics.
Nandan Nilekani's wife Rohini and Ananth Kumar's wife Tejaswini add a new dimension to the tough race for South Bangalore. Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa joins the two on the campaign trail.
'New Delhi is in a perpetual dilemma. It can't do without Yediyurappa, but it doesn't want a powerful CM. It stokes the opponents within against him. The result is he has never settled down in office, even in the present tenure'
As ceasefire violations by Pakistan continued unabated, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on said Islamabad does not seem to learn any lesson.
With Eranna Bhimappa Kadadi and Ashok Jasti -- one Lingayat and one from the OBC -- named as BJP's candidates for the upper house, bypassing the recommendation of the state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, as well as the core committee of the state, BJP leaders in Karnataka say the move is calculated to diminish the stature of the CM and create conditions for him to be eased out.
It is, as a matter of fact, not the spokesman's 'responsibility' to answer questions pertaining to people who are not related to the party
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