Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and thousands of people today paid their last respects to veteran Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran in Thiruvananthapuram. Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram flew in from Delhi to pay their homage to Karunakaran as the body lay in state at the KPCC headquarters Indira Bhavan. The Congress Chief laid a wreath, stood for a minute with folded hands before the body and conveyed condolences to Karunakaran's son K Muraleedharan and daughter Padmaja Venugopal. Defence Minister A K Antony, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, and others also paid their homage to Karunakaran. Later, the mortal remains were kept at the historic Durbar hall at the government secretariat where Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and others paid floral tributes. In the afternoon, the flower-decked cortege set out to Thrissur for cremation tomorrow. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to attend the funeral at Thrissur.