A ‘thanksgiving’ function organised by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at Pandikoil on the eastern fringes of the city led to a traffic snarl that spilled over to many parts of Madurai leading to a gridlock in the north-eastern parts of Madurai for over two hours on Sunday.
Vehicular movement near Apollo junction, Aavin junction, Gomathipuram Main Road, Anna Nagar Main Road, parts of Mattuthavani and Ring Road was disrupted as party functionaries parked their vehicles in a haphazard manner.
Though about 100 police personnel from the law and order wing and another 50 from the traffic wing were deployed to regulate traffic, they could not do much as they did not want to antagonise the ruling party bigwigs.
At Apollo junction, an officer said that they could not communicate to their superiors to divert traffic to other roads as the walkie-talkie network was down owing to repeater failure.
Mofussil buses from southern districts bound for Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand were diverted through Gomathipuram Main Road, adding to the confusion. The police could have allowed the buses to go up to Othakadai and make them take a left turn to reach Mattuthavani, public who were caught in the traffic jam said.
An ambulance from Kamarajar Salai side, which was trying to find its way through Anna Nagar Main Road, was caught in the middle of a traffic jam for at least 15 minutes. “An AIADMK VIP’s vehicle, which came on the wrong side, forced the ambulance driver to wait,” public said.
An AIADMK MLA, who joined the ‘celebration,’ said that district secretary and Cooperation Minister Sellur K. Raju had organised the feast as part of thanksgiving for their party leader Jayalalithaa’s victory in the recently held by-poll in RK Nagar in Chennai. “We wanted to thank those who performed pujas at temples in the last six months when ‘Amma’ was caught in the DA case,” he said.
Senior ministers led by O. Panneerselvam, Natham R. Viswanathan, MPs and MLAs participated in the feast.
About 150 buses were hired for bringing party workers to the feast venue and close to 1,000 private vehicles descended on Pandikoil, resulting in the gridlock, much to the annoyance of the public.
