The fissures among the people of Alanganallur in organising jallikattu escalated further on Tuesday, with a large number of locals, belonging to different communities and political parties, overriding the ruling AIADMK-dominated organising committee and declaring that the event would be organised by them and the people of other hamlets.
The trigger for the escalation was reported to be the design of the t-shirt to be distributed to bull tamers, which prominently had the images of late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala and the name of Sholavandan MLA K. Manickam.
As tension began mounting since morning, sections of people from Alanganallur, Valasai, Kuravangulam and Othaveedu met near the vaadivasal in Alanganallur and passed a resolution that jallikattu would henceforth be organised without any political interference.
“As jallikattu is happening this year due to the concerted efforts of Alanganallur people, students and Tamils from across the world, it has been decided to conduct the event by forming a village committee, comprising representatives from every section, irrespective of caste or political affiliation,” the resolution read.
D. Raghupathy, a villager, said a new committee would soon be formed for conducting jallikattu on February 10. “We are open to including members of the present organising committee too, if they participate just as a member of the village,” he said.
Talks by revenue and police officials failed to break ice since the present organising committee members refused to give up their ‘right’ to organise the event.
A member of the present committee said the issue was being instigated by the DMK in the village.
He pointed to the presence of a large number of DMK men, including Madurai East MLA P. Moorthy, in Alanganallur for a few hours on Tuesday.
“It all started during DMK’s tenure. They printed t-shirts with MLA’s name and images of M.K. Alagiri,” the committee member alleged.
