The body of Patnaik, who died in a Chennai hospital on October 9 last after of abdominal cancer, arrived here in the early hours this morning. Patnaik had spent 14 years behind bars and was even sentenced to death.

Party leaders spoke of Patnaik's struggle for the poor and downtrodden as his body was being prepared for the last rites at the Satyanagar crematorium here which became a political platform. His son, Phanibhushan Patnaik, lit the funeral pyre.

Covered by the red party flag, the body was kept at the CPI(ML)(L) office at Ashok Nagar here as thousands of party cadres, sympathisers and common people filed past amidst slogans of `Comrade Nagabhushan Patnaik amar rahe' and `Comrade Nagabhushan lal salam'.

Thousands of CPI(ML)(L) cadres from Bihar, Assam, UttarPradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh poured into the city since morning to attend the funeral.

The party general secretary, Vinod Mishra and seven other politburo members including Swadesh Bhattacharya and Ram Naresh Ram were present.

The funeral procession began from the party office in the afternoon with the body kept in a flower-beddecked cortege as the mourners marched the two km route to the crematorium in absolute silence.

Party general secretary, Mishra, who accompanied the body of the leader from Chennai on its journey by road through Andhra Pradesh, was seen walking behind the cortege along with other leaders.

Banners saluting the leader were carried by the cadres painting the streets red while many held aloft portraits of the the revolutionary. A large number of women, many of them draped in red, joined the procession which threw the traffic out of gear for an hour.

Among the mourners were the party MP from Assam Jayanta Rangopi and at least four MLAs from Bihar, Rajaram Singh,Rameshwar Prasad, Mahendra Singh and K DYadav.

The body was taken to Patnaik's home town Gunupur in Rayagada district in South Orissa yesterday from where it came to Bhubaneswar via Parlakhemundi, Palasa, Berhampur and Khurda.

It was kept on a raised platform at the party office as cadres toiled to ensure that the people could easily file past the body to pay their respects. Party leaders took turns in describing the valiant struggle waged by Nagabhushan throughout his life before he founded the CPI(ML)(L).

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister J B Patnaik, Deputy Chief Minister Basanta Kumar Biswal, PCC president Hemananda Biswal, CPI leader Loknath Choudhury, CPI(m) leader, sivaji patnaik, the cpi state secretary, abani Boral, the janata dal mla and former speaker, Yudhistir Das were among those who paid their last respects to the leader.

Molestation-J B patnaik

Bhubaneswar, oct 13 (uni) bjp legislature party leader in orissa biswa bhusan harichandan today demanded that chief minister j bpatnaik step down and face the cbi inquiry into the sex scandal involving the wife of former corporation chief jaydev panda.

Mr Harichandan told a news conference here that the CBI investigating into the anjana mishra molestation case should take note of the allegation of the involvement of the chief minister in the sex scandal.

The materials submitted before the subjudical magistrate's court here were indicative of the involvement of the chief minister in the sex scandal and if mr j b patnaik felt he was innocent he should order a cbi inquiry into the allegations.

The bjp leader charged the chief minister with committing a greater crime than former advocate-general indrajit ray who had been chargesheeted by the cbi for trying to supress evidence and personally involving himself.