Chennai: Hundreds of BJP workers including the party state president Tamilisai Soundararajan were arrested in the city on Friday when they staged demonstrations in front of TASMAC shops demanding total prohibition in the state.
Ms Soundararajan was arrested while she led a protest at Vadapalani. In a few places, the BJP workers even attempted to close the shops. They were released later in the day. The state BJP undertook massive "close TASMAC shop" protests in the backdrop of a few videos showing children consuming alcohol went viral online.
The most recent among them was the ruckus created in public by a uniform clad class 12 student under the influence of alcohol in Coimbatore. Before that, another video sent shockwaves across the state as a child was forcefully made to drink alcohol in Tiruvannamalai.
The police arrested the child's maternal uncle and his friends in this connection. It was against this backdrop that the state BJP staged a statewide agitation demanding closure of TASMAC shops and enforcement of total prohibition in the state.
