With news of deteriorating health condition of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa spreading like wildfire, a curfew-like situation prevailed in Chennai since Monday morning. The swelling crowds at Apollo hospital on Greams Road were high on emotion with each update on the Tamil Nadu chief minister's condition after she suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening.
With deserted streets and shutters downed in almost all the major areas of the city as early as 6.30 pm, the city was on the edge. A couple of hours earlier, locals were seen crowding at several provision stores to stock up on essentials, like bread and milk packets, fearing the shortage that they are likely to face in the coming days. Some shoppers returned empty-handed saying the bread and milk at their local grocer’s had run out.
Motorists queued up at petrol bunks across the city to keep their vehicles up and running for the next few days. Roads wore a deserted look, with no buses plying in the city.
Earlier, around 4.30 pm, there were massive traffic jams as people hurried home anticipating violence on the streets. One road user said the traffic was worse than when Chennai was battered by rains and inundated last year.