Former minister Natham R Viswanathan stopped by cops from climbing dais

Chennai: Former minister ‘Natham’ R. Viswanathan, who was among the AIADMK functionaries to pay homage to party founder MGR at his memorial, was stopped from climbing up the dais of party leaders to read a oath promising to protect the party and serve the people.

The former minister is not even an MLA now, since he lost at Athoor seat to DMK senior leader I. Periyasamy. He was one among the four key ministers, who were controlling the party and government affairs. But, he was denied his Natham seat in the 2016 Assembly elections and asked to contest from Athoor, which he lost. He was removed from the district secretary post also.

Police sources said it was a party function and there was no instruction from any official to stop Viswanathan from climbing the stage. One of the officials said he was not aware of any such incident and added that some local policemen who was not given any direction could have resorted to the act.