Prayers, vigil, chaos outside Apollo Hospitals

Chennai: With prayers on their lips, AIADMK leaders and cadre waited anxiously outside the Apollo Hospitals since Sunday evening after the news came out that their leader J. Jayalalithaa had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Chennai Police had a tough time controlling the crowd outside the hospital on the busy Greams road as hundreds of people kept thronging the institution. Chest-beating women of the AIADMK started wailing and praying that the Chief Minister would emerge soon stronger from the hospital.

As the crowd swelled outside the main gate of the Apollo Hospitals, where Ms Jayalalithaa was admitted on September 22, police had to resort to mild force to quell the people who, at one point, tried to break into the gate and enter the hospital.

AIADMK bigwigs like Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar and senior bureaucrats and officials rushed to the hospitals, while hundreds of AIADMK cadre also gathered outside Apollo Hospitals on the busy Greams Road.

Thousands of party cadre rushed to the Apollo Hospitals after the news spread and tried to enter the premises, giving tough time for the police to control the situation.