The Temple City, the venue of the high-voltage political meeting of Ms J. Jayalalithaa, is sitting on a powder keg. On Monday, AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa will lead the protest against the DMK government for its commissions and omissions and the entire city has been brought under a close security scanner to avoid the untoward incident that Opposition leaders in the state are apprehensive about.
While the AIADMK has been allegedly receiving a string of threat mails warning the former chief minister against visiting Madurai, the home turf of Union minister and DMK strongman M.K. Alagiri, the DMK president and chief minister M.Karunanidhi has asked his cadre to exercise utmost caution and restraint.
The DMK government has handed over the case regarding threatening letters to the CBI following AIADMK’s accusations over unfair conduct of enquiry. With the Opposition party and its allies, including the MDMK and CPI, expressing fears of violence at the politically significant meeting, Mr Karunanidhi, in a letter to his cadre, has said that such claims were being made just to hurl the “weapon of violence” back at his party.
However, the police has stepped up its vigil. South zone IG S.S. Krishnamoorthy said, “About 3,000 police personnel drawn from the entire zone have been deployed. Security has been intensified at the airport, the VIP convoy route and venue. In view of alleged security threats, access control has been strengthened. Collective intelligence and all inputs received are given proper attention.”
Though Ms Jayalalithaa comes under Z-plus security, her party, not wanting to take chances, has created its own security cordon with 1,500 workers.
A battery of senior functionaries led by its treasurer O. Paneerselvam has been camping in the city for more than a month now to make the event a greater success than her previous shows of strength in Coimbatore and Tiruchi. The Madurai meeting has invigorated the cadre down south who have been eagerly awaiting her visit to the city for long.
Estimates of the crowd at her previous mammoth meeting in Trichy vary with some putting it at 18 lash people and her party is confident the crowd will be even bigger at the much anticipated rally that is to be a show of strength of the Opposition leader.