Chennai: The AIADMK headquarters would usually be swarming with cadres and party functionaries on December 24 to mark the death anniversary of party founder late MG Ramachandran. On Sunday it wore a deserted look, thanks to the RK Nagar bypoll result in which the ruling AIADMK bit the dust, finishing a distant second.
It was an unusual sight in Chennai to see both the DMK headquarters (Anna Arivayalam) and the Avvai Shanmugham Salai housing AIADMK party office to remain stoic silent without any fanfare when the voting was counted.
As Dhinakaran's margin started growing, the DMK functionaries and ruling party members also started leaving the counting station at Queen Mary's College.
Though the chief polling agents and the booth agents of the DMK and the AIADMK remained till the 19th round, the district level functionaries were missing. Interestingly, a few ruling party members who came to the counting station after observing the late MGR's death anniversary also gave away firecrackers and sweets to the rival TTV camp and left silently.
The roads leading to iconic Gopalapuram and Poes Garden were missing the usual fanfare and the traffic. There were hardly any police manning the high profile area.
While the traffic along the beach road suffered, the entire city witnessed traffic-free Sunday.
