The Hindu : Front Page : Violence mars council byelections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

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Front Page

Violence mars council byelections

Karthik Subramaian and Saptarshi Bhattacharya

AIADMK and DMK men took to the streets after stone-throwing and lathi charge

ARSON DURING POLL: A Qualis van set on fire by miscreants near MGR Nagar in Chennai on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadres fought pitched battles outside polling stations during the Chennai Corporation byelections in two wards on Tuesday. The police arrested agitating leaders and volunteers of both parties after they took to the streets protesting against the violence.

Peak-hour traffic ground to a halt on Anna Salai and several other connecting roads for more than two hours as both the parties staged road rokos — the DMK on Anna Salai and Greams Road and the AIADMK on Whites Road.

Van set ablaze

An AIADMK councillor's van was set ablaze at Thiru Nagar, Jafferkhanpet, while the windscreen of a police van was smashed at MGR Nagar. Stones were hurled at women voters at Gopalapuram.

Trouble started even before the polling began in some booths at Gopalapuram (Division 110) and MGR Nagar (131), where cadres of both the parties had turned up in large numbers. The DMK legislator, J. Anbalagan, and some partymen were arrested after they staged a road roko on Greams Road alleging that their agents were threatened by the ruling party agents at knifepoint at a polling station there.

The DMK registered a similar complaint at Sarada Vidyalaya School at Gopalapuram. Around 8.30 a.m., stones were thrown at a group of 20 women from a building opposite the institution. The Triplicane MLA, S.A.M. Hussain, was prevented from entering the booth but the ruling party MLA from R. K. Nagar, P.K. Sekar Babu, was allowed in.

The former Mayor and Thousand Lights MLA, M.K. Stalin, who came to the polling station after the stone-throwing incident, entered into a heated argument with the police over security arrangements. He then led a group, raising slogans against the police, to Anna Salai through Avvai Shanmugam Salai and squatted there. He was joined by N. Veerasamy, Mr. Hussain, DMK councillors and more than 500 partymen. The police arrested them after nearly an hour.

AIADMK protest

At the same time, the AIADMK, led by Finance Minister C. Ponnaiyan, blocked Whites Road and raised slogans against Mr. Stalin. They alleged that he had prevented women from casting their votes. Seven other Ministers — K.P. Anbalagan, Anita R. Radhakrishnan, M. Radhakrishnan, R. Vaidyalingam, S. Karuppusamy, A. Miller and S. Ramachandran — joined the protest and were picked up by the police along with the others.

At Jafferkhanpet, the rival partymen threw stones and bottles at each other on Jayabalan Street. A group of DMK men, including several councillors, sat on Inner Ring Road, impeding peak-hour traffic. It alleged that the AIADMK men were casting bogus votes in the booths at M.A.K. Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Thiru Nagar. They were whisked away by the police. There was a pitched battle at MGR Nagar and the police wielded lathis to disperse DMK volunteers and an angry mob. Another Minister, B. Valarmathi, courted arrest in the area, staging a road roko along with the party cadres in protest against the "violence unleashed by the DMK."

All those picked up by the police during the day were released in the afternoon.

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