National
#Karur Stampede : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay Slams DMK Says “They tried to gain political mileage, out of the tragedy
In his maiden visit also after becoming CM, Vijay faulted the police for not alerting him about the swelling crowd at the TVK venue on September 27 last, nor taking any steps to cancel the meeting as the crowd had become unmanageable to control.
Picture : ANI/X
Nearly a year after the tragic stampede here that killed 41 persons during his party rally, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam founder and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Friday made his first visit to this district, and trained his guns against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for attempting to gain “political mileage” from the incident.
He also slammed the Dravidian party for restraining him from visiting this western town. In his maiden visit also after becoming CM, Vijay faulted the police for not alerting him about the swelling crowd at the TVK venue on September 27 last, nor taking any steps to cancel the meeting as the crowd had become unmanageable to control.
“The police could have alerted us that the crowd was swelling and become unmanageable to control. The police have all the right to cancel the meeting. Without doing so, the police escorted us on the highway,” Vijay said in his address at a public meeting in Karur.
He could not meet the affected 41 families in Karur last year but had those affected families brought near Chennai and personally consoled them..
Police Accountability Questioned
At the meeting on Friday, Vijay said, “I trusted the police fully and even thanked them at the meeting. I didn’t know about the drama. Who is responsible for this. Under whose instruction was all this done,” he asked.
“They tried to gain political mileage,” out of the tragedy, he said in an apparent reference to the DMK, then in the ruling saddle.
He said the Karur stampede has caused him immense anguish.
“We have lost children of our sisters in the 2025 Karur stampede,” he said.
The CM, clad in black attire, also announced to establish a memorial on behalf of his party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) for the victims of the Karur stampede.
“You (DMK) accused me of hiding and uttered many things against me,” Vijay said at the meeting and claimed that the police had advised him against visiting Karur immediately after the stampede occurred.