Youths dangerously perched on iron structures holding speaker boxes at TVK conference held near Madurai on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: G. MOORTHY
An unprecedented turnout of several thousand cadre for Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam State conference on Thursday posed an arduous challenge for the police in two folds.
Firstly, in ensuring free flow of vehicles, which drove in thousands, and secondly, to maintain law and order inside and outside the sprawling venue where the popular actor-turned-politician was to address.
Though Madurai district police had deployed over 2,500 policemen on ground, it was mostly to regulate the traffic and ensure all vehicles reached the sprawling parking zones located at vantage places leading to the venue.
“Since, this was a private meeting, the role of police inside the venue was very limited,” a police officer said.
The party organisers had their own safety measure inside the conference venue by deploying hundreds of bouncers, including those from other States.
They were deployed all around the stage, in close proximity to the stage which was earmarked for the VIPs of the party and the media gallery behind it.
The organisers were also very particular in safeguarding some 300-metre-long ramp that protruded from the stage into the crowd on which the party founder walked to greet the cadres.
The police on ground gave mixed reaction to the cooperation offered by the cadres, mostly youngsters from teenagers to mid-thirties.
“We found no resistance from them when it came to parking the vehicles at the designated zones. They did not argue with us for taking the vehicles closer to the venue to avoid walking for several yards under the scorching sun,” said a police officer regulating the traffic.
No vehicles were parked on the roads blocking free flow of traffic.
However, inside the meeting venue, the mob psychology overtook the normal behaviour of the cadre of a political party.
Despite the hot sun, many youths climbed atop the iron structures holding the speakers and also the palmyrah trees.
“A good number of youths were determined to move as closer as possible to the stage, not just to have a better glimpse of Mr. Vijay, but also to take selfie with him, touch him and offer him scarfs and garlands,” another police officer said.
After having spent several hours at the venue, many of them tried to push down the eight-feet high barricades after the bouncers did not allow them inside.
“With the party not having a full-fledged organisational set-up, these youths were not under anyone’s control and it was free for all in certain pockets,” another police officer said.
The bouncers, in black, and the volunteers with yellow t-shirts, could not hold the unruly crowd for long and as the conference commenced several scores of the youths either jumped over the barricades or managed to break the cordon to reach the 10-foot-high ramp or the VIP zone.
Only when the khaki-clad police intervened, the crowd gave up their obstinate attitude.
On their part, those youths, who stayed put in the front boxes meant for the cadre, stood over plastic chairs, jumped and danced waving the scarfs, and eventually ended up damaging a few hundred chairs.
But for the presence of the police who rushed to the entrance of the stage, a few hundreds of them could have gained entry into the stage as the meeting was about to conclude.
Published – August 22, 2025 09:31 pm IST
