MG Ramachandran's birth centenary observed in Tamil Nadu

A huge crowd of MGR followers gathered at his memorial at the Marina Beach in Chennai to celebrate the eve.

Chennai, Jan 17: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday observed a public holiday to mark the birth centenary of former chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founder M.G. Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR.

A huge crowd of MGR followers were gathered at his memorial at the Marina Beach in Chennai to celebrate the day. Along with the AIADMK leaders, former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar was also present in the event. However, Deepa returns without paying tribute to MGR at his memorial due to massive crowd.

Earlier, today the TN assembly's opposition party chief MK Stalin also remembered MGR and extended his greetings on his hundredth birthday. He took to micro-blogging site Twitter to describe how close friends MGR and his father MK Karunanidhi were.

Born on January 17, 1917, MGR was a star in Tamil cinema before joining Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He founded the AIADMK following a feud with DMK chief M. Karunanidhi in 1972 and went on to serve as chief minister of Tamil Nadu between 1977 and 1987.

OneIndia News (with inputs from agencies)