Getting complaints about political leaders is not strange for TN police, especially in this poll season. But what Kattumannarkoil police encountered on Thursday was a little bizarre. It all started with a 79-year-old man entering the police station with the flag of the Indian National Congress. As no party flags are allowed in the station, police asked the man, who claimed to be an active member of the party, to lower the flag.
Though he did so, he started demanding to file a complaint against Prime Minister Modi for his speeches during poll campaigns, which according to him, hurt the religious sentiments of many. Though police advised him to file it at the relevant stations where the campaign occurred, he continued to demand an FIR. Later, he left the station saying he would escalate the matter to higher authorities.
‘Summer’ vacation
As the polling is over in the state, CM Stalin’s family vacation seems to be the new topic of discussion in the DMK. Though the initial speculation was that CM’s family would visit Maldives in the first week of May, later party sources confirmed that he and his family would be visiting Kodaikanal from April 29 to May 4. Concurrently, there’s a spirited debate within DMK circles as to whether CM MK Stalin’s vacation plans might be perceived negatively by the public amid the state’s ongoing struggles with heat waves and acute shortage of drinking water across the state.
Fanned fanaticism
Though it has been 37 years since former CM MG Ramachandran passed away, one can still see his influence in Tamil Nadu politics. On the poll day, it was very evident as his devoted fans, aged from 60 to 80 years, were talking passionately about him in the booths. One such party loyalist, Arputham, said she cast her first vote when MGR started AIADMK and has been voting for the party ever since without missing an election. She said she doesn’t care about the internal issues of AIADMK and would continue to vote for the two-leaf symbol to show her loyalty to MGR. Once an MGR fan, always an MGR fan, right?
(Contributed by S Kumaresan,Bagalavan Perier B and Subashini Vijayakumar; compiled by Sneha Joseph)