TIRUCHY: Anguished and angered that the political parties have not bothered to address their longstanding demand to lift the ban on the traditional bull fighting, jallikattu enthusiasts here have decided to field candidates in seats where the event is considered special to the point of being divine.
The leaders of the group admit that they would lose in the election, but are confident of skewing the results. Jallikattu organisers have been appealing to various authorities to enlist the traditional games like jallikattu, rekla race, manjuvirattu and rooster fight in list of festivals approved by the government so that it could be organised annually. “We had approached parties asking them to include our demands in their election manifestos. But none paid attention to the repeated pleas,” said T Rajesh, State president, Tamilar Veera Vilayattu Pathukaappu Kazhagam.
The organisation first announced that its members in all these districts would surrender their election ID card to the district-level officials to press their demand, but the officials pacified them with promises that were not kept yet.