Sportspersons including footballer Sailen Manna, former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, cultural personalities like singer Usha Uthup, top leaders of the CPI-M and other political parties as also common people - many of whom had been helped by Chakraborty during crisis times - paid their last respects.

Monks of the Ramakrishna Mission, who expressed their gratitude for Chakraborty's support for their projects, garlanded the body.

The procession covered wide stretches touching his Salt Lake residence, besides making several unscheduled halts following public demand.

Makeshift platforms came up along the route. There were banners with quotes from Chakraborty's favourite Tagore poems.

A large number of people waited at the sprawling Salt Lake Stadium, built at Chakraborty's initiative despite a fund crunch, where the body reached well past noon.

As the cortege reached the state secretariat Writers' Buildings, the chief minister, his cabinet colleagues, government officers and employees garlanded their late colleague who had been a minister for the last 27 years.

At the state assembly, former chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Roy and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee were among those who paid floral tributes. Former International Cricket Council chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, and a large number of sports personalities were among the milling crowd at the next stop - the Netaji Indoor Stadium.

There were touching scenes at the CPI-M headquarters at Alimuddin Street, as weather-beaten communist veterans could not hold back tears and hugged one another in an effort to console themselves.