Vijay To Meet Families Of Karur Victims On Monday
Vijay had originally wanted to meet their bereaved families at their homes or at least at a common place in Karur but his party acolytes could not arrange for the rendezvous due to security and other concerns.
Chennai: Exactly a month after 41 persons died in a stampede at an election campaign meeting in Karur on September 27, the president of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) would meet the family members of the victims at a posh hotel in Mahabalipuram to console them for their loss and also reassure them that he would adopt the families and take care of their needs on Monday.
It is learnt that the families would be put up in the hotel the previous night and Vijay would meet them in the morning to personally convey his condolences and regrets over the unfortunate incident that drew the attention of the entire nation and became a talking point in political circles.
Vijay had originally wanted to meet their bereaved families at their homes or at least at a common place in Karur but his party acolytes could not arrange for the rendezvous due to security and other concerns. If police were apprehensive of the party leader visiting the houses, the owners of the big marriage halls in Karur refused to rent out their premises citing possibile unruly behavior by TVK cadre and loss of property as the reasons.
So the party leaders finally arranged the meeting in the Mahabalipuram hotel where security arrangements could be made for Vijay. Travel to the venue would not cause any traffic disruptions and it would be a straight drive for the leader from his house in Panayur to Mahabalipuram.
The party, in the meantime, is said to have organized a volunteers’ corps (thondar padai) on the lines of other major political parties, who might be taking care of the security arrangements at the meeting along with the usual band of professional bouncers who have been guarding Vijay in all his political outings.
After announcing a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to each of victims’ families, Vijay also handed over the cheques to them. Now, he just wanted to establish a personal rapport with them and have a heart-to-heart conversation before he could move on with his political activities.
Vijay is expected to complete his state-wide campaign tour that he started on September 13 at Trichy and visited six districts on three consecutive Saturdays when the disaster struck at Karur. Now he wants to complete the proposed tour covering all the 38 districts before elections for the Assembly are announced.
Meanwhile, the CBI, which has been entrusted with the task of probing the reasons behind the tragedy by the Supreme Court, has commenced its work and it is believed that Vijay, too, might be summoned for deposition.
