CHENNAI: Responding to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami claiming the reason for not attending veteran leader R Nallakannu's funeral was because CPI leaders did not attend his mother's funeral in 2020, CPI state secretary M Veerapandian rejected it as an untrue claim.

Veerapandian said that, as per a party decision at the time of Palaniswami's mother's demise, senior CPI leaders, including N Periyasamy and M Arumugam, had visited his native village to offer condolences, and then state secretary R Mutharasan and state committee member S Ezhumalai had met him at his official residence in Chennai and paid floral tributes.

While attending a funeral was a matter of personal choice, public statements should reflect the truth, he said.