Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay campaigns in Madurantakam byelection roadshow

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam president C. Joseph Vijay held a roadshow through the Madurantakam Assembly constituency on Friday ahead of its October 6 byelection. Vijay began campaigning for TVK candidate Maragatham Kumaravel at Mamandur on GST Road at about 2.30 p.m.

The four-and-a-half-hour roadshow covered roughly three dozen villages in Chengalpattu district, about 80 kilometres from Chennai. The cavalcade travelled through locations including Karunguzhi, Ayyanar Temple Junction, Mocheri, Thandalam, Perumbakkam, Sempoondi, Elapakkam, Kil Athipakka and Melmaruvathur Adiparasakthi Temple Junction before ending at Therady Street in Madurantakam. Vijay waved to supporters from atop his campaign van and interacted with people at several stops.

He drank tea at a shop and spoke with locals in L. Endathur, Kiliyanagar and Sempoondi. At Ramapuram, he got down from the van, borrowed a farmer’s tractor and drove through a field.

Supporters lined GST Road from the forenoon despite hot conditions. Some presented Vijay with a spear, a sceptre and a bronze statuette of Lord Murugan, while others offered flowers, gifts and letters. The crowd significantly disrupted traffic.

Police struggled to control supporters who gathered on both sides of the road and crossed temporary metal barricades. Congestion remained for more than an hour after the cavalcade passed some points. The byelection became necessary after Kumaravel, who had won the constituency on an AIADMK ticket, resigned from the Assembly on May 25 and joined TVK less than a month after the Assembly election results were declared.