His son Sumit Chakravarty lit the funeral pyre at Nigambodh Ghat. A number of political leaders, including Sitaram Kesri, K L Sharma, A B Bardhan, Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi and Sharad Yadav, and journalists attended the cremation. Earlier, President K R Narayanan, Vice-President Krishan Kant, former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and I K Gujral, several members of the Union council of ministers and Opposition leaders paid their last respects to Nikhilda at his residence.

Nikhil was the founder of the Leftwing journal Mainstream. He called himself a reporter, but his incisive writings and columns made him one of the best known political analysts and commentators in the country. At the time of his death, Nikhil Chakravarthy was chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board and also founder-chairman of Namedia, an organisation of media personnel from thenon-aligned countries.