A team of eight leaders from the NDA and BJP has arrived in Karur, Tamil Nadu, to check out the site of a deadly stampede that killed 41 people last week. The chaos broke out on September 27 during a public rally for TVK chief and actor Vijay, turning a huge crowd gathering into tragedy.
The delegation, led by BJP MP Hema Malini as convenor, includes MPs like Anurag Thakur, Aparajita Sarangi, Tejasvi Surya, Braj Lal, and Rekha Sharma. It also features Shrikant Shinde from Shiv Sena and Putta Mahesh Kumar from TDP. They inspected the rally spot in Karur on Tuesday, focusing on what went wrong in the Karur stampede.
Eyewitnesses shared heartbreaking details with the team. One person said that just minutes after Vijay began speaking, fans started fainting in the packed crowd. TVK leader Aadhav Arjuna alerted Vijay, and they tossed water bottles from the vehicle to help. But the road was narrow—only 19 feet wide against a 12-foot vehicle—making things worse. “The local administration failed us,” the eyewitness told the group. Chaos erupted when an ambulance arrived, causing more panic. People ran everywhere, and it took an hour to clear the area. Another witness questioned why the crowd pushed toward a ditch instead of safer spots, noting outsiders swelled the numbers.
Anurag Thakur explained the team’s plan: “We’ll start by listening to families who lost loved ones in this Tamil Nadu stampede, talk to locals and officials, then submit a full report.” Their goal is to uncover how the Vijay rally stampede happened and support affected families.
Meanwhile, police in Karur arrested TVK’s Karur West District Secretary Mathiyazhagan over the incident that claimed 41 lives, including 18 women and 10 children. They also nabbed Paun Raj, a local functionary who set up flagpoles and banners for the event and hid Mathiyazhagan afterward. In Chennai, authorities picked up YouTuber and journalist Felix Gerald linked to the case.
The stampede hit when thousands turned out for Vijay’s TVK event, leading to panic as people fainted and rushed to hospitals. Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited victims’ families on Monday with colleagues, urging better crowd management rules for big public events in India. She called for a standard operating procedure to prevent future disasters like this.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin responded quickly, setting up a one-member probe commission led by retired High Court judge Aruna Jagadeesan. He stressed that political parties and groups must follow strict guidelines for safe rallies. The Karur tragedy has sparked calls for safer public gatherings nationwide.
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