Karur: A road-roko by the general public, incidents of stone-throwing in which at least five persons including a police head constable and an AIADMK functionary were injured, damage to propaganda vehicles of Congress and the ruling AIADMK candidates marred the final round of election campaign at Vengamedu near Karur on Tuesday.
The trouble started when the authorities allotted time for both Congress and AIADMK candidates to have their final round of canvassing at Vengamedu, following the Madurai bench of the Madras high court's intervention. Based on the court order, Karur collector T Anbazhagan allocated a place for both parties at Vengamedu.
While the routes for the road shows and rallies by the AIADMK Karur Lok Sabha constituency candidate M Thambidurai and the Congress candidate Ms Jothimani, had been separately set out, there was nevertheless a clash between workers of the AIADMK and DMK-led fronts who had assembled near Kamaraj statue here. They attacked each other with stones and sticks, following a wordy duel.
In the melee Special branch, police head constable Senthil and local AIADMK functionary Dharman received critical injuries on their head and were rushed to a private hospital at Karur. Several members of the public including two pregnant women were also injured in the stone-throwing.
Following this, the local residents and DMK volunteers resorted road roko at one stage, and there was another stone-throwing incident in which the windscreens of a TNSTC bus and a few propaganda vehicles of both candidates were damaged.
However, police persuaded the agitators to disperse and restored normalcy.
According to the local residents, they blamed the police for allowing both the parties to wind up their campaigns at the same place, with meager police strength.
Earlier in the day, Karur collector and returning officer of the Karur Lok Sabha constituency T. Anbazhagan told newsmen that there is a threat to his life and of his family members, in the wake two groups of AIADMK and DMK functionaries pressuring him last night on the choice of venue to conclude their poll campaigns on Tuesday.
